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ASUS P4C800 Deluxe

ASUS’ i875P based board looks to be a worthy contender as it has some nice features, but will it do what we enthusiast want it to do. And that is be a worthy Pentium 4 2.4C mate.

Introduction

ASUS has always been a strong contender in the motherboard market due to their product quality and feature rich designs. The enthusiast community is smitten with ASUS due to their ability to produce fast overclocking boards that are some of the most stable available. ASUS’ latest foray into the market is based on the i875P chipset.

The P4C800 is ASUS’ latest offering featuring the Intel i875P chipset. The Intel i875P chipset offers support for the latest Intel 800 MHZ FSB processors with HyperThreading technology as well as DDR RAM of up to 400 MHz operating in Dual Channel mode. The P4C800 was designed to be a full featured solution, offering the following integrated features: 2 ATA 100 IDE ports, 1 ATA 133 IDE port, 4 SATA 150 ports, 8 total USB 2.0 capable ports, 2 total IEEE 1394 capable ports, 1 RJ-45 3Com Gigabit Ethernet port, S/PDIF output, 2 total serial ports, 1 parallel port, and keyboard/mouse PS/2 ports.

Mainboard Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Board Layout

ASUS obviously did their homework, based on the fantastic layout of this board. There are a few minor problem areas, but all said and done, I’m impressed. Notice that the capacitors used on the motherboard appear to be manufactured by the following companies: United Chemi-Con (USA, Japan), SAMSUNG Electro-Mechanics Corporation (Korea), and Taiwan Ostor Corporation (Taiwan). The capacitors marked KZE and KZG are manufactured by United Chemi-Con, those marked RLG are manufactured by Taiwan Ostor, and those marked TMZ are manufactured by SAMSUNG Electro-Mechanics.

The CPU socket area seems to be clear of capacitors and other obstacles, allowing for easy installation and removal of a HSF unit on the CPU. Similar to other i875P based boards, the CPU socket assembly and HSF cage has been rotated 90 degrees so that it sits in a vertical orientation. Directly to the left of the CPU socket is the i875P northbridge. The northbridge chip is passively cooled by an aluminum heatsink held down to the motherboard by two wire clamps. The hold down mechanism implemented allows for removal of the HSF unit without requiring the motherboard to be removed as well.

Just above the CPU socket is the PWR_FAN header, which is monitored through the system BIOS when a fan is connected. To the right of the fan header is the KBPWR jumper, which controls the PS/2 port system wakeup. The USBPWR12 and USBPWR34 jumpers are located to the left of the fan header, and control system wakeup based on the rear panel USB ports. Just below the CPU socket is the CPU_FAN header, which is also monitored through the system BIOS with a fan connected.

The board’s DIMM slots are located just below the CPU socket and northbridge. The DIMM slots themselves are grouped in two sets of two slots and are color coded with each set of slots corresponding to a single memory channel. ASUS uses the color coding scheme on the DIMM slots to help in enabling Dual Channel memory mode. Just above and to the right of the top DIMM slot is the ATX12V connector. The connector is a bit close to the slot, but does not seem to get in the way of memory insertion or removal with the cable engaged. Just below the bottom DIMM slot is the board’s two ATA 100 IDE connectors, the floppy connector, and the ATX connector. The location of these connectors is ideal for routing the cables out of the CPU’s air path.

The ICH5 southbridge chipset is located below PCI slots 2 and 3, with its corresponding SATA connectors located just below and to the left. The Promise controller chip is located to the left of the southbridge chip, near the edge of the board. Just below the Promise controller are its two SATA connectors, with its ATA 133 IDE connector below all four SATA connectors. The ATA 133 IDE connector has been rotated 90 degrees, which allows the IDE cable to plug in parallel to the plane of the board. This allows for more effective routing of the IDE cable to maximize system airflow.

To the right of the IDE connector is the CHA_FAN header, which is monitored through the system BIOS when a fan is connected. Just above the fan header is the system standby power LED, which glows when the PSU is connected to the board. To the right of the fan header is the CMOS clear jumper. To the left of the ATA 133 IDE connector is the system panel header, with the chassis intrusion connector located just above it. Between and below PCI slots 1 and 2 and slots 2 and 3 are the two USB device headers, with the USBPWR jumpers for each header in between the headers themselves. The USBPWR jumpers control system wakeup based on USB ports connected to the 2 board headers. The IEEE 1394 header is located just below PCI slot 5 along the edge of the board, in close proximity to the COM2 header.

The P4C800 contains 5 PCI slots, a WiFi connector, and an AGP Pro slot. Notice that the AGP slot does not have a card locking mechanism. The WiFi connector is located next to PCI Slot 5 along the edge of the board. Between PCI slots 4 and 5 is the modem audio header, with the CD-IN and AUX-IN audio connectors placed between PCI slots 3 and 4. The placement of these connectors between the PCI slots will become a frustration with PCI cards seated in slots 3, 4, or 5. Just above PCI slot 4 is the game port header, with the front audio panel header located just to the left of it. Note that you must jumper pins 5/6 and 9/10 for the rear audio ports to function. Above PCI slot 3 is the digital S/PDIF out audio header.

The rear panel contains the standard set of ports, including a keyboard/mouse PS/2 port, a parallel port, a serial port, 4 USB 2.0 capable ports, 1 IEEE 1394 capable port, an RJ-45 3Com Gigabit Ethernet port, 3 audio ports, and an S/PDIF component output port.