865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003 - Part 1: 20-way Shootout
by Evan Lieb on June 12, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe
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Motherboard Specifications |
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CPU
Interface
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Socket-478
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Chipset
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Intel
82875P MCH (North Bridge)
Intel 82801EB ICH5 (South Bridge) |
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Bus
Speeds
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up
to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments)
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Core
Voltages Supported
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up
to 1.950V (in 0.0125V increments up to 1.60V, and 0.0250V after that)
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I/O
Voltages Supported
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N/A
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DRAM
Voltages Supported
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up
to 2.85V (in 0.05V increments)
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Memory Slots
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4 184-pin
DDR DIMM Slots
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Expansion Slots
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1 AGP
8X Slot
5 PCI Slots |
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Onboard IDE RAID
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Promise
PDC20378 controller (RAID 0, RAID 1 & RAID 0 + 1)
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Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394
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Eight
USB 2.0 ports supported through South Bridge
VT6307 IEEE-1394 FireWire Controller |
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Onboard LAN
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3COM
3C940 Gigabit LAN (no CSA bus)
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Onboard Audio
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Analog
Devices AD1985 Controller
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Onboard Serial ATA
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Two
SATA connectors via ICH5 (no RAID)
Two SATA connectors via Promise PDC20378 Controller (RAID 0, RAID 1 & RAID 0 + 1) |
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BIOS
Revision
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1006
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One of the most notable attributes of the P4C800 Deluxe is its IDE/Serial ATA drive support. As usual there are the standard IDE connectors, dubbed the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors, which support two channels each and therefore up to four IDE drives total. There's one additional IDE connector powered by the Promise PDC20378 controller. This specific Promise controller supports just two IDE channels, meaning a max of two hard drives (no optical drives allowed) can be connected. This same Promise PDC20378 controller also powers two Serial ATA connectors (not the two ICH5-bound Serial ATA connectors), which allows users to connect one SATA drive to each connector. All in all you should be able to connect four SATA and six IDE drives to this motherboard, though we can't imagine what desktop user would have the need for ten drives in one case as the heat, noise, and maintenance required would be quite severe. Though we have to admit, the P4C800 Deluxe's drive capability is perfect for small database workstations/servers and the like.
Not surprisingly the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe contains excellent overclocking options such as a Vcore available as high as 1.950V, VDIMM up to 2.85V in 0.5V increments and a FSB ceiling of 400MHz. All these options make it exceedingly easy for overclockers to take advantage of the P4C800 Deluxe's tremendous FSB overclocking ability. In fact, if you were to replace the P4C800 Deluxe's passive North Bridge heatsink with a good active cooling solution you'll probably be able to squeeze a good 290MHz FSB out of this motherboard. We would never have guessed 6 months ago that 300MHz FSB (1.2GHz effective) frequencies would be possible by summer.
Some of the negative aspects the P4C800 Deluxe carries are its lack of basic high-end features like ICH5R and CSA Gigabit LAN that all top-of-the-line 875P Pentium 4 motherboards should carry. Coincidently enough ASUS has just released a new version of the P4C800 Deluxe, dubbed the P4C800-E Deluxe. This new revision corrects some of the mistakes ASUS made with the original 875P revision we examined last April and are examining again today. The E revision tacks on native RAID support and CSA support, almost certainly because there has been demand for it. However the price premium being asked for the P4C800-E Deluxe simply isn't worth it when compared to other high-end motherboards on the market such as ABIT's IS7-G/IC7-G, Soyo's P4I875P DRAGON 2, Gigabyte's 8KNXP, and AOpen's AX4C Max.
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18 Comments
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Zak - Sunday, January 18, 2004 - link
I bought IS7 after reading this article and I've been having problems. Random resets, then BSOD after changing XP recovery settings. Over the past few months it worsened. In the begining it like once a week maybe. I wasn't concerned, bad driver I thought. Now it won't run more than an hour without BSOD. I have Corsair XMS DDR400 in it. I've played with memory settings for weeks, timings and voltages as well, reinstalled XPPro several times, updated BIOS, got all newest drivers and run out of ideas... I've put a stick of DDR333 because that's all have to test and I still get the same random BSOD, even durnig XP installation. I have no PCI cards in this box. Mushkin calls this board problematic and attributes the memory problems to forced implementation of PAT that is not normally present in 865. I may try getting it replaced by NewEgg but I don't suppose it'll help. I'm thinking about getting a 875 board instead. Zak.Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link
I would like to see part II of the roundup of the 865 chipset. I wonder what is the delay?Anonymous User - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
I thought Part 2 would be out by now at least... There are good new boards out there I'd like to see... Shuttle AB60R (cheap and full featured) and Abit IC7-MAX3 (OTES for mobo power area). I am still looking forward to seeing this, eventually, right guys?Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Any comments on newer motherboards? Why hasn't supermicro been tested since 2000?Looking to compare supermicro
Intel s875wp1-e and Super P4SCE (SuperServer 5013C-I (SYS-5013-CI)) for a $50k cluster
Thanks
syzygyus@yahoo.com
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
Evan, how in the world is #4 going to research your statement when the articles/review comments forum gets purged/is gone now ?Anonymous User - Saturday, August 23, 2003 - link
Any word on Revision 2 of the Gigabyte 8knxp ultra board yet?Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link
I bought the is7 after I read this article. It had many problems. I ended up having to ram this board twice. If you read the abit forum boards you will see alot of problems I am fairly surprised after all the tests this board was put through nothing ever went wrong. I will not buy another abit product period. I will stick to gigabye i've built 6 systems with Gigabyte and yet to have any problems with them. Save for the chipset fans having a low life.Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
I bought the Abit IS7 and am completely pleased. One note is that many of the IS7's appear to be getting shipped with the gigabit lan as opposed to the sales brochure stated 10/100. (mine has the gigabit)Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 - link
How could it be that the Asus p4c 800 de luxe is more expensive then the asus p4p deluxe but in the testresults it is slower?I would think i am misinformed by the computershop?
And the p4c deluxe got a gigabit lan on board, despite mentioning in the summary of this Mb it has not.
PixelDoc - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Error Re: Gigabyte GA-8KNXP MoBoThis MoBo has 4, not 2 SATA connectors, 2 controlled by ICH5R and 2 more contolled by the SIL3112 chip.