Asus P4S800D-E (SiS 655TX) Motherboard Review
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Asus P4S800D-E
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| Chipset |
SiS 655TX |
| Processor |
Pentium 4 FSB 400/533/800MHz
Celeron FSB 400MHz
HyperThreading |
| Memory |
PC1600/2100/2700/3200 |
| HDD |
2xUltraDMA/133
P-ATA RAID 2xUltraDMA/133
4xSerialATA
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| Additional |
2 IEEE-1394
Audio AC'92 v2.2
8 USB 2.0
Gigabit Ethernet |
| Price: |
118$ |
Despite the good "price/performance" and no worse "price/expansion options" ratio of the SiS 655TX chipset, boards based on this chipset are rarely available in the retail. Only large manufacturers released products on the base of the SiS 655TX, but practically all the second-rank manufacturers ignored such a successful chipset. Anyway, as per the other version, the cause of the poor availability of this chipset lies in the restricted production capacities of SiS company itself.
Today, we'll be reviewing the Asus P4S800D-E board based on the design of the P4S800 board built on the SiS 655FX chipset. Since the chipsets are both mechanically and electrically compatible, specialists at Asus simply did no more than adding the letter "D" to the name. As regards the letter "-E", it means we got the most "wired" make of the board with maximum expansion options.
Asus P4S800D-E Specifications
| Asus P4S800D-E |
| Processor |
- Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood/Prescott) with the bus speeds 400/533/800 MHz;
- Intel Celeron (Northwood) with support for 400 MHz bus speed;
- Socket 478;
- Support for HyperThreading |
| SiS 655TX chipset |
- North bridge SiS 655TX;
- South bridge SiS964;
- Interbridge bus - MuTIOL of 1.06 GB/s bandwidth |
| System memory |
- Four 184-bit slots for DDR SDRAM DIMM
- Maximum memory capacity 4GB
- Supported memory types PC1600/2100/2700/3200
- Dual-channel memory access
- Onboard power indicator |
| Graphics |
- AGP slot with support for the 4x/8x modes; |
| Expansion options |
- Five 32-bit PCI Bus Master slots (including BlueMagic);
- Eight USB 2.0 ports (4 integrated + 4 additional);
- Two IEEE1394 (Firewire) ports
- Integrated audio AC'92 v2.2;
- Marvell Gigabit Ethernet LAN controller;
- WiFi slot; |
| Overclocking options |
- FSB adjustable within 100 to 300 MHz in 1Mhz increments;
- Adjustable voltage on the processor, memory, and AGP;
- AI Overclocking |
| Disk subsystem |
- 2 channels UltraDMA133/100/66/33 Bus Master IDE (with support for up to 4 ATAPI devices)
- Additional IDE Raid controller (SiS 180 chip, 2 channels IDE supporting ATA33/66/100/133 & RAID 0, 1, 0+1 with support for up to 4 ATAPI devices; 2 channels SerialATA ;)
- Support for SerialATA (2 channels; RAID 0, 1)
- Support for LS-120 / ZIP / ATAPI CD-ROM |
| BIOS |
- 4MBit Flash ROM;
- Ami BIOS with support for Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PnP Features;
- Asus MyLogo2
- Multi-languages BIOS
- Asus CrashFree BIOS |
| Miscellaneous |
- One FDD port, one serial and one parallel port, ports for PS/2 mouse and keyboard
- STR (Suspend to RAM)
- SPDIF Out
- Asus POST Reporter
- InstantMusic |
| Power management |
- Wake-up on modem, mouse, keyboard, LAN, timer and USB
- Standard 20-pin power connector ATX (ATX-PW)
- Additional 4-pin power connector |
| Monitoring |
- Monitoring the temperatures of the processor, voltages, rotational speeds of the three fans
- Asus Q-Fan
- Asus PC Probe |
| Dimensions |
- ATX form factor, 245mm x 305mm (9.63" x 12") |
Package
P4S800D-E is packaged into a box of customary design, where the focus is made on the "AI Series" logo.
Package bundle
- Motherboard
- 1x software & drivers CD;
- 2x ATA133 cables, 1x ATA33 cable, 1x FDD cable;
- 2x SerialATA cables + a power supply adapter (2 connectors);
- User's Guide in English + Quick Setup Manual (two versions);
- 1x header with 2 additional USB 2.0 ports and a GAME-port;
- 1x header for an IEEE1394 port;
- A sticker with the jumpers layout diagram + an Asus logo sticker;
- InstantMusic buttons sticker;
- 1x pack of extra jumpers;
- 1x cap for the rear panel
The package bundle is full enough despite that the product falls within the mid-end price category. Of the shortcomings, there is only the lack of additional header for two USB ports (the board supports 8 ports altogether), as well as the lack of a header for COM2 port. While the first header can be made available in any computer shop, the second is much more difficult to obtain.
In all the other respects, the package bundle has nothing to complain about: the user's guide is very well written and gives an in-depth account of all the assembly stages (including the detailed description of BIOS settings). The information is complemented with a comprehensive (for Asus boards) "brief guide" in several languages (of superb polygraphic quality), as well as "brief guide" specifically for the P4S800D-E.
On the bundled CD, there is a complete set of proprietary Asus utilities (including PCProbe, Live Update/MyLogo, Winbond VoiceEditor (for POST Reporter)). Of the third-party software, only PC-cillin 2002 stands out. But it's highly probable that the Gold version will soon appear on sale, i.e.with additional CD containing a set of InterVideo WinDVD Suite (WinDVD, WinRIP, Win DVD Creator).
The remaining contents of the box are standard: proprietary black cables, two SerialATA cables with a compulsory power supply adapter, a header for a Firewire port, and a header for two USB ports with one COM2 port. There is also a cap to the rear panel, a pack with additional jumpers, Asus logo stickers, a jumpers layout diagram, and a keyboard sticker for the InstantMusic utility.
In the total, for the relatively low price of the product, the package bundle deserved a firm "4.5/5" mark.
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