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ASUS P4S8X

If you are in the mood for AGP8X, DDR333, and SATA, the guys at Asus have put together a Pentium 4 mainboard that may be to your liking.

Introduction:

If you are in the market to buy a new Pentium 4 powered computer, or simply looking to upgrade your existing PC to a new socket 478 solution; regardless of what platform you are upgrading from, now is a very good time to be doing so. Why? The answer is easy, Intel CPU based platforms right now are not only very cost effective, where they haven't been in the past, they also give the buyer a wide choice of chipsets in which to base your new Pentium 4 system around. One such chipset is from a company you should all be familiar with, SiS. If you have been following the chipset licensing wars, you'd know that Intel and SiS share a licensing agreement, which allows SiS to use proprietary Intel intellectual property in their chipset logic. While VIA has proven a good chipset can be produced without licensing, bumping heads with Intel is not the best way to market your chipset to mainboard manufacturers. This has given a distinct advantage to companies like SiS and ATi whom do have a licensing agreements in place.

Taking full advantage of their relationship with Intel, SiS has produced one of the most powerful, full-featured chipsets on the market today, the SiS 648. Which brings us to our review candidate, the SiS648 powered ASUS P4S8X.

ASUS has built the P4S8X around the SiS648, a chipset boasting features like 8X AGP, (unofficial) DDR400 support, and the impressive high bandwidth of the SiS MuTIOL 1G® proprietary interconnect between SiS648 and SiS963, that delivers 1GB/s bandwidth (almost double the 533MB of bandwidth of previous SiS chipsets), hence the "1G" added to the MuTIOL name. ASUS is proud to be the first company to combine both 8X AGP and Serial ATA on the P4S8X. From ASUS:

ASUSTek Computer Inc, the world's leading motherboard manufacturer, today announced the release of the P4S8X socket 478 P4 motherboard. Besides supporting AGP8X video connectivity, the P4S8X is currently the only SiS® solution on the market with Serial ATA technology, enabling the best performance in data transfer. Incorporating SiS® chipset solution to support the latest Intel processor with 533MHz FSB and high-bandwidth DDR memory up to 333MHz, the P4S8X delivers a full-value yet cost-effective P4 solution.

AGP8X, doubling the bandwidth of its predecessor AGP4X (up to 2.12GB/s), provides cutting-edge graphics performance while 6-channel CODEC support brings incredible sound quality. Onboard 1394/USB 2.0 interfaces further enable smooth audio/video data transfer between DV/MP3 players and user systems. Serial ATA is the latest peripheral connectivity with data transfer rate up to 150MB/s. With a Promise controller, the P4S8X supports two serial ATA connectors and RAID 0 or 1 functions. The P4S8X has all the key features for the present, while providing expandability for tomorrow.

The P4S8X comes with a full-spectrum of unique ASUS features such as JumperFree, Multi-language BIOS, Post Reporter, EZ Flash, Q-Fan, MyLogo, PC-Cillin 2002 and EZ Plug to enhance your computing experience. The all-new ASUS motherboard includes more accessories when compared to competing products, adding more value to your investment. The P4S8X bundles a full-spectrum of cables and modules supporting IDE/ATA/FD/Com 2, USB2.0 x 2, game port, SATA X 2 and IEEE 1394 module.

Features:

The Board Layout:

At first glance, the P4S8X looks like most other ATX socket 478 mainboards. Only when you take a few minutes to actually scrutinize the layout around the socket area do you realize how cramped this board is. Still we have to keep in mind that there are simply a lot of features to pack into such a small package.

Looking at the socket area, the only complaint is a minor, yet annoying, one. The ZIF socket hold down lever is very thin, so much so that too much pressure while unlatching it can bend it. The no mount zone around the socket is also extremely close to the northbridge as well as the components on the upper leading edge of the board.

The heatsink sits in this board positioned from side to side, instead of top to bottom, as most HSFs are. This seems to make things a bit tighter.

Looking directly down on the board with the heat sink installed, you can see how the top edge of the board will be very close to the power supply once installed into a case if your PSU happens to border the top edge of the board. The hold down lever for the heatsink also poses a unique problem when trying to remove or install the ATX power cable from the motherboard. Fan headers for the CPU as well as the PSU are also located directly over the CPU area. If you have fat fingers, you can be sure that you will not be reaching in easily and removing the ATX power cable or the surrounding 3-pin power plugs.