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.

A Closer Look at SiS 655TX Asus P4S800D-E: Features and Board Layout
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  • WhoBeDaPlaya - Friday, April 23, 2004 - link

    LOL swt - wish I got paid for the reviews I write :P
  • swt - 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

    #3
    Why would I want to give up that?

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