Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe & Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra: SiS 655TX Challenges Intel's Best
by Wesley Fink on December 9, 2003 1:52 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: Asus P4S800D-E vs. Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra
Motherboard Specifications | ||
Asus P4S800D-E | Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra | |
CPU Interface | Socket 478 Pentium 4 and Prescott | |
Chipset | SiS 655TX North Bridge/SiS 964 South Bridge | |
Bus Speeds | 200 to 300MHz (in 1MHz increments) | 200 to 355MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
PCI/AGP Speeds | FIXED at 66/33. No adjustment, but PCI/AGP does not float |
AUTO, Fixed at 66/33, or fixed at 60-100 in 1Mhz increments |
Available CPU Ratios | Not available with Standard Intel Processors | Not available with Standard Intel Processors |
Core Voltage | Normal, +0.1V | 0.8375 - 1.6 in 0.0125V increments |
DRAM Voltage | Normal, 2.55V to 2.85V in 0.1V increments | Normal, +0.1V |
AGP Voltage | 1.5V to 1.8V in 0.1V increments | |
Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total |
|
Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots, WiFi Slot |
1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots |
Onboard Serial ATA/RAID | SiS 964 (2 Drives, 0, 1) SiS 180 (2 Drives, 0, 1, 0+1) |
SiS 964 (2 Drives, 0, 1) |
Onboard IDE/RAID | SiS 964 (4 drives ATA133) SiS 180 (2 drives, 0, 1, 0+1) |
SiS 964 (4 drives ATA133) GigaRaid (4 drives, 0, 1, 0+1) |
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports by 964 2 1394a FireWire ports |
8 USB 2.0 ports by 964 2 1394a FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
Onboard LAN | Marvell Gigabit LAN | Realtek Gigabit LAN |
Onboard Audio | ADI AD1888 SoundMax 6-Channel with SPDIF | Realtek ALC658 codec AC '97 2.3 6-Channel with UAJ |
BIOS Revision | 1001.023 Beta | Pre-Release 655TX.M3 |
With both the Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra and Asus P4S800D-E based on the same North Bridge/South Bridge combination, there are many common features provided by the chipset.
The 655TX North Bridge provides the Dual-Channel memory controller with support for up to 4GB of DDR400 memory. Support for 8X/4X AGP is also provided by the 655TX.
The Introduction of the 964 South Bridge with the most recent SiS chipsets has allowed motherboards based on the SiS chipset finally to compete on features with the best from Intel. The 964 allows both the Asus and Gigabyte to offer 8 USB 2.0 ports, dual ATA133 IDE, Serial ATA with the option for RAID 0 and 1, and 6-channel audio.
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WhoBeDaPlaya - Friday, April 23, 2004 - link
LOL swt - wish I got paid for the reviews I write :Pswt - Saturday, February 7, 2004 - link
Having bought the P4S800E, I can correct a couple of misimpressions.First, the passive heatsink on the NB isn't so large as to interfere with my Zalman CNPS-7000Cu. Other mondo coolers might be problematic, of course.
And the AMI BIOS now supports multiple CPU Core settings, all the way up to 1.9V. Since I don't get paid to write such reviews, I'm not going to type in the details - but the BIOS that shipped with the MB *has* been updated in that regard, as promised.
buzzby311 - Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - link
buzzby311 - Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - link
All of the current memory reviews talk about memory that is great for the 865 875 chipsets. What memory would be good for overclocking on this motherboard with an Intel 3.0GHz 800FSB HT processor?Wesley Fink - Monday, December 15, 2003 - link
Asus says the P4S800D-E will appear on their web site on Friday, December 19, 2003. They expect the boards to be available for sale in the US by January 1.ColdRolledSteel - Thursday, December 11, 2003 - link
I also would like to know when the P4S800D-E is coming out. It isn't listed anywhere, including on the usa.asus.com website....Wesley Fink - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
Spacecomber -We normally check FSB and report those that are out of spec. With these 3 boards all are within 0.5MHz of 200. The Asus P4S800D-E is 200.1, and both Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra and Asus P4C800-E are at 200.5. If numbers are way off we correct them to 200 (800) before running benchmarks if possible.
Spacecomber - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
Unless I missed it, did you check to make sure no one was cheating a bit with their front side bus speed? Is a 200 MHz frontside bus really a 200 MHz frontside bus for all three boards that you compared?Thx
Space
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
#14 - All our Benchmark tests on the 655TX boards were done with an ATI 9800 PRO with Fast Writes enabled, so there does not not seem to be a general problem with ATI cards.valnar - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
#3Why would I want to give up that?