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ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe Review February 04, 2004 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: Based on the SiS655TX chipset, the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe supports a wide range of features: 4-port Serial ATA, dual-channel DDR400, support for Intel's latest Prescott Pentium 4 processors, bus speeds up to 300MHz, and a wide range of voltage options for overclocking. But does ASUS' claim of "875P-like performance, half the price" really hold up? We recently took this motherboard out for a test drive to see what it was made of. See why we came away impressed in today's review!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 14 ) |
Ever since the Pentium 4 was first conceived, Intel has maintained a multi-tiered strategy for chipsets based on the platform. Initially it was the 850 with Rambus RDRAM versus 845 and later 845E with DDR SDRAM. Then, around this time last year, Intel’s platform of choice for the high-end sector was the dual-channel E7205 (Granite Bay) chipset (alongside with 850E), while Intel’s 845PE/GE served the mainstream market.
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When Intel unveiled its 800MHz front-side bus, Intel attempted to continue this strategy, much to the chagrin of many hardware enthusiasts. 875P (Canterwood) was intended to be the platform of choice for the performance crowd, while 865PE/GE (Springdale) serviced the mainstream segment. Both chipsets featured dual-channel memory architectures, supported Intel’s 800MHz bus, Serial ATA, and many other cutting edge technologies, with the key differences being performance and price. Many Canterwood motherboards hovered in the $180 and up range, while Springdale boards could be found for $120-$150. Canterwood’s performance edge came from Intel’s Performance Acceleration Technology, commonly referred to as PAT.
PAT accelerated the memory timings within the North Bridge of the chipset, ultimately enhancing performance. Canterwood had it, but Springdale didn’t. Or so we were told by Intel.
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It turns out that both chipsets were the same, only Canterwood had been verified by Intel to work with PAT while Springdale hadn’t. However, a handful of enterprising motherboard manufacturers (including ASUS) discovered that many Springdale boards were quite stable with the faster timings, and enabled the functionality on their boards only under a different name to avoid sanctioning by Intel. As a result, many gamers and enthusiasts flocked to the Springdale platform.
Since then things have been rather tame, many motherboard manufacturers have released their second generation of 865 and 875 products, but nothing’s really shook up the industry.
Until now that is, as SiS has prepped a dual-channel, Prescott Pentium 4 processor supporting equivalent to Intel’s 865 and 875 chipsets that’s been designed to offer similar levels of performance, well-rounded features, and most importantly for those of you on a budget, a more conservative price. The name of this chipset? SiS 655 TX!
SiS655TX North Bridge
From a features perspective, SiS’ 655TX chipset lays claim to all of the key highlights of Intel’s chipsets. It supports the latest 800MHz front-side bus processors (including Intel’s Extreme Edition CPUs), and can be outfitted with DDR400 memory in a dual-channel memory configuration, capable of feeding the Pentium 4 processor with up to 6.4GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth. (Single-channel operation is also supported if you’d like to save money now, and upgrade to dual channel later).
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SiS was the first chipset manufacturer to bring AGP 8X to the Pentium 4 platform, so it’s no surprise to see that the SiS655TX natively supports this interface. Up to 4GB of memory is supported by the North Bridge, with up to 1GB per DIMM.
SIDEBAR: ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe page
| South Bridge/Features | Page:: ( 2 / 14 ) |
Paired to the SiS655TX North Bridge is SiS’ 964 South Bridge. The chips are connected by SiS’ proprietary MuTIOL interconnect technology. This is the same interconnect SiS has used on previous AMD and Intel chipsets. MuTIOL is 16 bits wide and operates at 533MHz.
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MuTIOL consists of two independent pathways, which are used to link the chips together. One pathway can be sending data from the SiS655TX North Bridge to the SiS964 South Bridge, while the other pathway is sending data in the opposite direction. The end result is up to 1GB/sec of peak bandwidth between the two chips.
The rest of SiS964’s feature set is pretty complete. It has an integrated USB 2.0/1.1 controller that supports up to eight USB ports, matching the specs of Intel’s 875P/865PE chipsets. The P4S800D-E Deluxe provides connections for up to six devices (four on the board’s back plate and two more via an external header). SiS964 is also SiS’ first chipset to offer native Serial ATA support and, also like Intel, adds RAID support to its list of features. RAID levels 0, 1, and JBOD (just a bunch of disks) are supported. Of course, if you don’t have a Serial ATA hard drive, don’t worry. SiS964 also provides dual IDE controllers supporting ATA133/ATA100, which is of course backward-compatible with older IDE devices such as ATA66 and ATA33.
The only feature SiS964 lacks which Intel has in its ICH5 South Bridge is Gigabit Ethernet networking support (with Intel’s CSA architecture). SiS964’s network controller is limited to 10/100Mb Ethernet.
Keep in mind that this probably won’t be a significant oversight for most of you, as Gigabit networking equipment isn’t exactly mainstream just yet. After all, how many of you have Gigabit switches lying around in your home?
ASUS does get around this though by integrating a Gigabit network controller from Marvell on the P4S800D-E Deluxe. To be honest, this is more of a checkbox feature the ASUS board can boast on its list of features more than anything else, as the PCI bus it utilizes is capped at 133MB/sec of peak bandwidth. This is one bottleneck Intel has gotten around by incorporating its CSA link between the Intel Gigabit network controller and the rest of the system.
In addition to the native Serial ATA support provided by the SiS964 South Bridge, ASUS goes the extra mile by integrating SiS’ SiS180 Serial ATA controller, which supports two additional Serial ATA devices. By incorporating SiS180, the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe not only supports two additional Serial ATA drives, it also adds RAID level 0+1 (striping+mirroring) to the P4S800D-E’s list of features.
Audio and IEEE-1394
Since the SiS964 chipset doesn’t offer native FireWire support, ASUS has implemented VIA’s popular VT6307 controller to provide this functionality. Two ports are supported by VT6307, ASUS has integrated one port on the board’s back plate and the second port on an external header.
ASUS WiFi
One of the least talked about features ASUS has been putting on its motherboards lately is wireless networking. For years ASUS has been designing boards with Wi-Fi slots, at first under the name BlueMagic. This was the navy blue slot located just beneath the last PCI slot on their motherboards that ASUS had intended to be paired with their own Wi-Fi card.
Ultimately, BlueMagic never came to market; it has instead been replaced with ASUS Wi-Fi@Home.
Wi-Fi@Home is the same concept as BlueMagic (built-in wireless networking support), only now it’s actually made it off the drawing boards and into retail. All of ASUS’ newer boards have the Wi-Fi@Home slot located beneath the last PCI slot on the motherboard. The slot supports 802.11b and 802.11g. ASUS then offers an 802.11b card that you plug into the Wi-Fi slot as well as its accompanying external antenna.
Some of ASUS’ motherboards actually ship with the antenna and card inside the box, although ASUS hasn’t announced a P4S800D-E variant that includes these extras. It is however good to see ASUS offering this feature as an option, as wireless networking is quickly taking off and you don’t lose a PCI slot in the process. We’ve found that installation is seamless, even if you’ve already got a wireless network up and running you shouldn’t run into any problems setting everything up.
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Audio
ASUS uses Analog Devices AD1888 CODEC to handle audio duties. If you’ve read a few of our motherboard reviews, you probably know that we’ve been praising Analog Devices SoundMAX CODECs for two years now, due to their performance, audio quality, and support for audio extensions such as Sensaura’s 3D positional audio, EAX, A3D, and SoundMAX’s own sound product extensions (SPX) for 3D gaming audio applications. But we’re not quite as well versed on this particular CODEC.
Unlike the newer AD1985 CODEC ASUS uses on its P4C800 Deluxe motherboards, the AD1888 CODEC doesn’t offer support for jack-sensing technology. This is helpful for setting up audio devices, especially 5.1 speaker systems, as it shows you if you have a device hooked up incorrectly.
Keep in mind that the ADI AD1988 should suffice for most light duty tasks, during testing we didn’t hear any unusual hissing or other line noise from our speakers, but this CODEC will not be capable of keeping up with an Audigy, much less one of the newer Audigy 2/Audigy2 ZS or VIA Envy24HT/PT-based cards like the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 we reviewed last year, so if you have a decent set of speakers you will probably want to upgrade to a discrete sound card like one of the aforementioned cards. (Many of which can be found online for under $80.)
Q-Fan
ASUS Q-Fan is another ASUS unique technology that we’ve appreciated ever since its inception. Q-Fan dynamically adjusts the speed of your systems fans depending on settings that you can define. This is great for those of you who don’t want your fan running at full speed all the time, especially if you find yourself doing mundane tasks such as checking mail and writing documents.
SIDEBAR: Woah ASUS! The P4S800D-E Deluxe definitely comes with the slimmest ASUS motherboard manual we’ve ever seen. The BIOS section is absent entirely.
Another interesting feature you may like is ASUS Instant Music. It allows you to play audio CDs on your computer without having to boot into Windows.
| Board analysis | Page:: ( 3 / 14 ) |
ASUS’ engineering team has always come up with some of the best motherboard layouts we’ve seen. Many of the snafus you’d find on other motherboards such as power connectors placed in locations that restrict airflow or DIMM sockets that are located too close to the motherboard’s AGP slot aren’t found on motherboards from ASUS. They’ve also had no qualms about taking a reference design from a motherboard manufacturer and completely redoing it, as we saw with some of their Rambus-based Pentium 4 motherboards.
For the P4S800D-E Deluxe however, ASUS plays it fairly conservative. Since this board isn’t intended for the high-end market, ASUS elected to omit the AGP Pro slot seen on the P4C800 series, as well as their popular A7N8X line. You’ll also see that the North Bridge of the system chipset is passively cooled, there is no fan paired with the North Bridge’s tall aluminum heatsink. ASUS hasn’t been using active cooling on any of its recent motherboards though, so this wasn’t too much of a surprise to us.
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To help conserve space on the board, ASUS has placed the floppy connector and the IDE connector tied to the SiS180 chip parallel to the right edge of the board. To some, this may be a positive, as it may help clear some cable clutter, while others may see it as slight installation hassle. It all really depends on your tastes and preferences. Clearly with the extra SiS Serial ATA controller (and the two extra ports that come with it), VIA FireWire controller, and hardware monitoring and BIOS chips, space was at a premium on the P4S800D-E Deluxe.
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Overall there’s a lot to like about the layout of the P4S800D-E Deluxe. The ATX power connector is located perfectly, right along the edge of the motherboard, so it won’t interfere with the CPU’s cooling. The ATX12V connector isn’t quite as ideal, as it is below the CPU interface, but this is fortunately one compromise that we can live with. There’s also plenty of space between the DIMM sockets and AGP slot, a power LED is placed on the lower section of the motherboard, and ASUS color codes everything, so you can instantly recognize the game port header versus USB headers, and the pins for hooking the P4S800D-E Deluxe to your case. Even the corresponding DIMM sockets are highlighted in blue.
Compatibility
One aspect that we were really concerned about with the P4S800D-E Deluxe was stability and compatibility. If you recall the SiS648 chipset, motherboards based on it had problems with some early ATI RADEON 9700 cards. ATI claimed to have fixed the problems with later board revisions, but we never could get the combination to work with complete stability.
Therefore we threw all kinds of different devices at the P4S800D-E Deluxe, DDR400 (and up) memory modules from Geil, Corsair, Mushkin, and OCZ were all used flawlessly, as well as ATI’s line of DX9 RADEON cards. All testing went without a hitch, so we’re pretty confident that this board will work with a range of devices, just keep in mind that we haven’t tested it with a 3.4GHz Prescott processor. Intel has told us that we should receive a sample in about a month, so we’ll have to reserve judgment with that chip for a later date.
SIDEBAR: ASUS continues to include a case badge with the P4S800D-E Deluxe.
| BIOS | Page:: ( 4 / 14 ) |
BIOS interface
First off, we’re not big fans of the AMI BIOS interface ASUS has implemented on the P4S800D-E Deluxe. To be honest, we’ve never really like the interface, navigation just isn’t as straightforward as the tried and true Award BIOS interface used on most motherboards, settings are buried underneath submenus of the five main menus, chipset timings for the North Bridge are even underneath a second submenu! It’s bearable once you get used to it, but if you’re accustomed to Award’s interface the adjustment can be somewhat painful at first.
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Complicating the matter is that ASUS’ manual doesn’t include a section with BIOS instructions. You could literally be looking for a setting for quite awhile without finding it, if it’s even there. ASUS could really ease the transition by providing instruction in the manual, but it currently just isn’t there.
What do we have is a board that is quite the capable overclocker however. Initial reviews that went out suggested that the board lacked overclocking options, so ASUS went back and added more for retail boards like we used for this review. Bus speeds range from 200-300MHz in 1MHz increments, giving you plenty of flexibility when it comes to finding the right bus speed.
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It’s the voltage adjustments that really shocked us, ASUS provides CPU voltage settings up to 1.95V in increments of 0.025V, giving you lots of wiggle room for voltage. ASUS also has settings for AGP voltage up to 1.8V and DDR voltage up to 2.85V.
The memory bus settings are pretty flexible as well. Not only do you get the 200MHz, 266MHz, and 400MHz settings for those of you with 400MHz, 533MHz, and 800MHz P4 processors, the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe and the SiS655TX chipset also provide memory speeds of 450MHz, 500MHz, and 533MHz! If you’re new to overclocking, you can also use the AI Overclock Tuner to automatically do the work for you, overclock settings of 5% over default, 10%, 20% and 30% are available, but experienced overclockers will of course want to set everything up manually.
Over in the chipset configuration menu you can adjust the memory timings to fit the needs of your memory modules. ASUS also has a “655 Ultra Plus Mode”. We don’t know exactly what this setting does, but we guess it must be something good. Unfortunately the furthest we could get with this setting enabled and our memory timings optimized was the Windows splash screen. At that point the system would consistently lock up.
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Overclocking
We weren’t quite sure how well the SiS655TX chipset would hold up to overclocking. We all know that the Intel 800MHz chipsets have proven to be reliable overclockers, but we were afraid that the SiS chipset wouldn’t be as robust, especially with the passive cooling present on the ASUS motherboard.
Fortunately, we were definitely wrong as we were able to crank our P4S800D-E Deluxe board up to 267MHz at 1.675V before we ran into stability issues. We were actually able to boot the board into Windows at even higher settings, but we couldn’t maintain adequate stability. Keep in mind that we didn’t add any exotic cooling solutions that could potentially influence our results; we used the stock Intel cooler Intel ships with its P4 processors and the passive cooler on the SiS655TX North Bridge. Pretty impressive huh?
SIDEBAR: Not only does the AMI BIOS make navigation difficult, its refresh rate is also painful for some flat panel monitors, not to mention the camera these pictures were taken with.
| Test Systems | Page:: ( 5 / 14 ) |
System Setup
Intel Northwood Pentium 4 3.2GHz
ASUS P4P800 Deluxe (865PE)
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe (875P)
ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe (SiS655TX)
FIC P4-865PE MAX II (865PE)
512MB OCZ EL PC3200 (DDR400) SDRAM
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Driver version Detonator 53.03
30GB IBM Deskstar DTLA 307030 ATA/100 Hard Drive
Windows XP Professional
DirectX 9.0b
Benchmarks
Call of Duty (demo0032 custom demo)
Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (fscrusher demo)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (T2 custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (FS custom demo)
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (Beyond3D custom demo)
Lock On: Modern Air Combat (Mig-29 custom demo)
Notes
We’ve rounded up ASUS’ high-end 875P and 865PE offerings in order to compare against the P4S800D-E Deluxe. We tested the P4C board with Turbo mode disabled and Turbo mode enabled, while the P4P800 Deluxe is running with Turbo mode and ASUS’ PAT-like Memory Acceleration Mode enabled for maximum performance. To represent a more typical 865PE motherboard, we’ve also included FIC’s P4-865PE MAX II, which doesn’t offer the performance enhancements found on the ASUS board.
SIDEBAR: Well, at least the ASUS cables are black.
| Call of Duty | Page:: ( 6 / 14 ) |
Call of Duty: OpenGL
SIDEBAR: The ADI AD1888 CODEC that the ASUS board utilizes comes from ADI’s SoundMAX 4 XL line.
| IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles | Page:: ( 7 / 14 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB: OpenGL
SIDEBAR: ASUS is based in Taipei, Taiwan.
| Quake III 4xAA 8xAF | Page:: ( 8 / 14 ) |
Quake III - OpenGL
SIDEBAR: Keep in mind that the Wi-Fi slot on the P4S800D-E Deluxe supports 802.11g if you want to upgrade in the future.
| UT 2003 | Page:: ( 9 / 14 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2003
SIDEBAR: ASUS includes two sets of USB headers on the P4S800D-E Deluxe board, up to six devices can be plugged in out of the box (four via the back panel).
| Splinter Cell | Page:: ( 10 / 14 ) |
Splinter Cell – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: So far ASUS has no other SKUs for the SiS655TX chipset, the Deluxe model we’re reviewing today is the only variant offered.
| Tomb Raider | Page:: ( 11 / 14 ) |
Tomb Raider – Direct3D
SIDEBAR: Now that football season is over, it’s on to basketball for me.
| Lock On: Modern Air Combat | Page:: ( 12 / 14 ) |
Lock On: Modern Air Combat
SIDEBAR: ASUS offers a 3-year warranty on the P4S800D-E Deluxe.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 13 / 14 ) |
Pros
SiS655TX chipset: While SiS’ 655TX chipset may not grab headlines like Intel 875P and 865PE, it’s practically just as capable. The chipset supports Intel’s latest processors, including those based on Intel’s 0.09-micron Prescott core that was released earlier this week. You’ve got native Serial ATA (2 ports), USB 2.0 (8 ports max), up to 4GB of dual-channel DDR400 memory, and AGP 8X. The only feature that is really missing is native Gigabit Ethernet networking, which hasn’t really taken off quite yet anyway.
SiS’ latest offering is also rock-solid in the stability department, so if you were worried about this particular aspect of the platform you shouldn’t be. SiS has proven in the past that it can build stable chipsets and the SiS655TX is no exception. We just hope ATI’s validation department gets their hands on a SiS655TX motherboard before releasing their next-generation products to retail. Obviously they missed SiS648 when they were working on RADEON 9700, but this can’t be blamed on SiS.
Performance: As you saw in our performance benchmarks, the SiS655TX-based ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe consistently outperformed ASUS’ equivalent 875P and 865PE offerings, even when both had their settings cranked to their fastest settings with Turbo mode enabled. Well folks, the numbers we got with the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe were run without SiS655TX’s Ultra setting enabled – we just couldn’t get the system to run with 100% complete stability with the setting turned on. This board is definitely a screamer.
SiS and ASUS have just delivered the fastest Pentium 4 motherboard we’ve tested with the P4S800D-E Deluxe.
Features: As we mentioned, the SiS chipset brings native support for features such as Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1, and JBOD, and a 4GB memory ceiling, just like Intel’s P4 chipsets. ASUS ups the ante by integrating a FireWire controller from VIA, Gigabit Ethernet networking, and SiS’ optional external SiS180 Serial ATA controller, bringing the total number of Serial ATA devices supported to four.
ASUS-unique features: ASUS has a few tricks up its sleeve that are unique (for the most part) to their motherboards. For starters you’ve got Q-Fan, which can dynamically adjust the speed of fans within your system depending on load. This will keep your ears happy. ASUS also adds its AI technology to the P4S800D-E Deluxe. This includes their Crashfree BIOS 2 which can allow you to restore your BIOS in case it gets corrupted. ASUS also has their POST Reporter. With this feature, your P4S800D-E Deluxe board will literally talk to you during POST if there’s a problem. We’re not quite sold on this technology though, as deciphering what your motherboard is actually saying can be a bit difficult. A voice editor is available which can be used to help overcome this though.
The P4S800D-E Deluxe also features C.P.R., CPU Parameter Recall. If the BIOS fails to load, say for instance you overclocked your motherboard too high, simply restart the system. The next time you boot up, the board will boot in “safe” mode, where you can then enter BIOS and manually adjust to safer settings. This feature saves time, as you no longer have to find the jumper to clear CMOS on the motherboard, or even worse, remove the system battery. The P4S800D-E Deluxe also comes with ASUS’ Wi-Fi slot and supports added extras like ASUS Instant Music and MyLogo.
Price: ASUS is definitely pricing the P4S800D-E Deluxe motherboard to move. In fact, it’s even cheaper than their Springdale-based P4P800 Deluxe! And while it’s only been available for a few weeks, boards can already be found for $110 online.
Robust overclocking options: ASUS has definitely built the P4S800D-E Deluxe with overclocking in mind, voltages range up to 1.95V, while bus speeds up to 300MHz are available in 1MHz increments. Basically, this board is built to be overclocked.
Cons
Not so Deluxe bundle: Unfortunately, ASUS’ bundle still lacks added extras such as round IDE and floppy cables. Sure, we understand that Serial ATA is about to overtake traditional parallel IDE devices, but there are still lots of parallel ATA hard drives out there, not to mention CD/DVD drives and burners. In addition, many of ASUS’ competitors are including round IDE cables in their packaging such as ABIT, Chaintech, DFI, FIC, and MSI. This is one of those small features that helped the DFI LANPARTY NFII Ultra B beat the A7N8X-E Deluxe in our comparison of the two boards a few weeks ago.
Of course, one of the primary selling features of the P4S800D-E Deluxe is its low price and we definitely realize that, we just wish ASUS would offer a true “Deluxe” board with all the bells and whistles (including the bundle) and a lower-end board without all the goodies but at a lower price. Right now ASUS hooks the Deluxe boards up with additional hardware (Gigabit LAN for instance) but forgets about the other goodies like round IDE cables. Meanwhile, ASUS’ competitors are not.
BIOS interface: ASUS’ BIOS interface is AMI (American Megatrends) rather than Award based, and while we’ve gotten used to it, we still feel that navigation is quicker and easier with the Award interface. This is purely subjective though.
ASUS complicates the situation by omitting the BIOS section from its manual, which is unusually slim in comparison to previous ASUS products we’ve tested.
SIDEBAR: The P4S800D-E Deluxe is the successor to the SiS655FX-based P4S800D.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 14 / 14 ) |
FiringSquad says
In case you missed it, you really should check out the Ballistics Report. There we’ve summed up just what makes this motherboard so special. Head on over there if you used the table of contents to skip to the last page.
In any case, with its SiS655TX chipset, the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe is one impressive performer. Not only does this motherboard scream through benchmarks, it’s got it where it really counts: stability and feature set. Whenever we post a review of a Pentium 4 motherboard that’s not based on Intel core-logic we always see the posts from readers concerned about buying a motherboard that’s not based on an Intel chipset, but we’re pretty confident that SiS655TX will prove itself to be a reliable solution.
We didn’t encounter any lockups or other stability issues throughout the course of our testing once we had the system up and running optimally. We also found that the motherboard works just fine with a wide range of components, including the ATI RADEON 9700 PRO.
As far as features are concerned, ASUS packs the P4S800D-E Deluxe with everything a hardcore gamer or enthusiast would want. You’ve got support for up to four Serial ATA devices, with RAID Levels 0, 1, and 0+1 available if you’d like to setup a disk array of multiple drives. And the board offers support for all the USB and FireWire devices you’d find on any of ASUS’ boards based on an Intel chipset. This makes the board perfect for connecting external devices such as a digital camera or camcorder. ASUS did skimp on the ADI CODEC in comparison to their 875P motherboard, but most gamers will use an external sound card like the Audigy or VIA Envy24 anyway.
ASUS describes this motherboard as “875P-like” in performance, but to be honest, that is one serious understatement. The SiS655TX chipset that the P4S800D-E Deluxe is based on is an 875P killer. And with the price ASUS is asking for this motherboard, we see no reason why anyone would want to go with one of the more expensive Intel-based motherboards like the P4C800-E Deluxe or the P4P800 Deluxe (unless you need CSA).
So why no Editor’s Choice Award then? Because as good as this board is, we feel that it could’ve been even better had ASUS gone with a more intuitive BIOS interface such as the Award interface used on some of its other boards, as well as spiced the bundle of accessories up by including round IDE and floppy cables. ASUS is really beginning to lag behind its competitors in this area, many of whom offer their boards with the round cables and even front panel drive bays. We don’t think ASUS needs to go this far, after all, their last attempt at doing so with the CUSL2 and the ASUS iPanel didn’t work out too well, but they at least need to consider adding round IDE and floppy cables. Remember, this is supposed to be one of the more expensive “Deluxe” motherboards.
At $110 online though, ASUS has one incredible package with their P4S800D-E Deluxe. The price/performance ratio has never been greater. Therefore this motherboard has got Bull’s Eye product written all over it. If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck from the Pentium 4 platform, the ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe should be at the top of your list.
SIDEBAR: Were you just as impressed with the P4P800D-E Deluxe as we were? If not, what features do you think it’s missing? Voice your thoughts on this board in the news comments!