Asus releases P4C800-E to calm down cross customers

THE NEW Asus P4C800-E Deluxe has been released due to complaints from irate customers. In an effort to cut costs, certain features were left out of the P4C800-D Deluxe and some parts were substituted.

Many enthusiasts were expecting Asus to use Intel's premium ICH5R Southbridge chip which includes built in RAID, but instead had the regular ICH5 and an optional Promise 20378 RAID controller.

The Intel 875P chipset is the largest desktop chipset to date, so we don't really blame Asus for rushing it a little and trying to save a few bucks in the tight motherboard market. However, there is only so far you can cut costs before it cuts into business. With over 1000 pins on the MCH, there isn't much room for error. One interesting note is that the heatsink is now aligned parallel to the board instead of diagonally. This deals with complaints regarding installation of CPUs and video cards.

A 3COM 3C940 Gigabit LAN PCI Controller supporting 10/100/1000 BASE-T Ethernet was used instead of Intel's Communications Streaming Architecture 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller. Because of this, all Ethernet data was being routed on the PCI bus, which causes a lot of problems if you're trying to use RAID with the Promise controller. The problem was exacerbated by users of the high end Creative SoundBlaster Audigy cards which also heavily utilize the PCI bus.

Bus saturation has been a growing problem for a long time, which is why Intel developed the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) in 1997. They increased graphics performance significantly by taking the graphics load off the PCI bus. Intel's Hub Architecture came next, which created a dedicated high speed point-to-point link between the Northbridge and Southbridge.

With RAID becoming ever more popular and now almost standard with Canterwood boards, Intel sought to give Gigabit Ethernet its own dedicated bandwidth with CSA. Therefore, you would have a 32-bit AGP 8x interface, 2 64-bit ECC DDR memory interfaces, a 64-bit NetBurst FSB interface, a 16-bit Hub Link ICH interface, and a 16-bit CSA interface attached to the Northbridge. However, because Asus used a 3COM chip instead of Intel's chip, Ethernet traffic is routed through the PCI bus.

Many enthusiasts are now paying the small 5%-10% premium for Serial ATA drives. Asus thankfully includes 4 Serial ATA data cables and 2 SATA power cables, all of high quality and apparently manufactured by Comax.

A Promise SATA controller offers RAID 0, 1 and 10 functions with up to 2 Ultra ATA 133 ports and 2 SATA ports, enabling users to build a RAID array with any 2, 3 or 4 of the ports. With their multi-RAID function, RAID 0 and RAID 1 array can co-exist.

Besides these new features, the P4C800-E is expected to be slightly faster than its older brother. Since the P4C800-D has been around for over 3 months now, some tweaking is to be expected. Thanks to wide testing and manufacturer support, the P4C800-E has a larger DDR400 Memory Qualified Vender List as well. And don't forget this baby features ECC (Error Correcting Code) RAM support, which you'll want to use if you do any kind of financial or critical work.

Mass production of the board is now ramping up and retail sales are expected in July. We are in the process of acquiring one and will post a review as soon as possible. µ