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- Date:
- Monday , June 09, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P4P800 Deluxe
This is the ASUS entry in to the i865PE/Springdale market. Is this the board to pair up with your Pentium 4 2.4C, or does it fall short of expectations?
Introduction
ASUS is among one of the best known and most respected out of the motherboard manufacturers, due to their commitment to quality and performance. The enthusiast community embraces ASUS’ motherboards, for their legendary overclocking ability and overall stability. The company’s latest product based around the i865PE chipset is sure not to disappoint.
The P4P800 Deluxe is ASUS’s latest offering featuring the Intel i865PE chipset. The Intel i865PE 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. Like its big brother, the P4P800 Deluxe was designed to be a full featured desktop solution, offering many integrated features including: 4 ATA-100 IDE ports, 2 SATA 150 ports, 3Com Gigabit Ethernet, 8 total USB 2.0 capable ports, 2 total IEEE 1394 capable ports, S/PDIF output, 1 serial port, 1 parallel port, and keyboard/mouse PS/2 ports.
Main Specifications Overview:
CPU | Intel Socket 478 Pentium 4 or Celeron |
Chipset | Intel 865PE / ICH5R |
FSB | 400/533/800 |
BIOS | AMI |
Memory | 4 DDR DIMMS, up to 4 GB |
Expansion slots | 1 x AGP, 5 x PCI, WIFI wireless connector |
Onboard IDE | 2 x ATA-100 Intel ICH5R based headers, 2 x SATA 150 Intel ICH5R based headers, 2 x ATA-100 VIA based headers |
USB | 4 rear panel / 2 headers supporting 2 ports (8 ports total) |
AGP | AGP 2x/4x/8x |
Audio | 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC with rear panel RCA output |
NIC | 1 x 3Com Gigabit Ethernet controller in rear panel |
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
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Board Layout
The board layout is good overall, but there are a few areas of concern. From the serial number pictured, you can see that the board is an A01 release board. Note that the capacitors used on the motherboard appear to be manufactured by the following companies: United Chemi-Con (USA, Japan), Illinois Capacitor Inc (USA), 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, those marked RLS are manufactured by Illinois Capacitor Inc, and those marked 2N117 appear to be mil-spec capacitors of an unknown manufacturer.
The CPU socket area is mostly clear of obstacles, with the exception of the Northbridge heatsink to its left. The Northbridge heatsink is a bit close for comfort and could impede CPU HSF installation and removal for a larger unit. The CPU socket itself comes standard with a P4 mounting bracket assembly. Directly below the socket is the monitored CPU_FAN1 fan header. To the right of the CPU socket is the Northbridge chipset, which is passively cooled by a massive heatsink. The heatsink itself is attached to the board via two crossing wire clamps, allowing for removal of the unit without removing the motherboard from the system case. Between the Northbridge heatsink and the rear panel is the ATX12V connector, and the USBPWR12 and USBPWR34 jumpers. These jumpers system wakeup based on the rear panel USB ports. Along the edge of the board and above the CPU socket is the KBPWR jumper. This jumper controls the PS/2 port system wakeup.
The board’s DIMM slots are just below the CPU socket and Northbridge, in a two sets of two configuration. Each set of two slots are tied to a single memory channel of the chipset. Further, ASUS chose to color code the slots across channels to ease in enabling Dual Channel memory mode. Notice the proximity of the AGP slot to the left edge of the upper set of DIMM slots. This will cause problems when attempting to insert/remove memory with an AGP card seated. Just below the bottom DIMM slot is the ATX connector, with the floppy connector below that along the edge of the board. To the right of the ATX and floppy connectors are two of the board’s ATA-100 IDE connections. The placement of these connectors allows for air flow friendly cable routing.
The board’s ICH5R Southbridge chipset is located below PCI slot 1, with its 2 SATA 150 connections just below the chipset itself. To the right of the SATA connectors and along the edge of the board are the monitored CHA_FAN1 and PWR_FAN1 fan headers. Just below PCI slot 2 are the USBPWR56 and USBPWR78 jumpers which control system wakeup based on the USB headers. The two USB 2.0 headers are located just to the left of the jumpers. Just below the USB 2.0 headers is the CMOS reset jumper. The VIA drive controller chip is located between PCI slot 4 and the CMOS battery. Its two ATA-100 IDE connections are located vertically just below the CMOS battery, and along the edge of the board. The ATA-100 connector along the edge of the board has been rotated 90 degrees, allowing the IDE cable to plug in to the connector parallel to the plane of the board. Further, this allows for more effective IDE cable routing to maximize air flow through that area. Along the left edge of the board, you have the front panel jumper block, a COM2 header, a SMBUS header, a game port header, and an IEEE 1394 header.
The P4P800 comes standard with 5 PCI slots, and AGP slot, and a WIFI connector between PCI slot 5 and the edge of the board. (Please note that special hardware is needed to enable WiFi on the mainboard and was not included.) Next to the AGP slot is a red LED which lights when AGP related problems are detected. Just above PCI slots 1 and 2 are the CD-IN, AUX-IN, and modem connections. The front audio panel and S/PDIF output headers are located just above PCI slot 4. 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. Just below the WIFI connector is a green LED, which lights when an active power source is connected to the board.
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, 3 audio ports, and an RCA component output port.