gdjacobs wrote:

Can't find the SB-Link header (even unpopulated)...

Maybe it's just too early in the morning.

This model only have solder pads for SB-Link, but a member of this forum (stamasd) acquired that board and tried soldering the contacts on the SB-Link solder parts and it worked, on that thread, he did the testings: YMF744, DOS, no DMA? (PC/PCI, SB-link tests) (edit YES DMA, read further down)

I'd bougth an Asus p4G8-del. 2 years ago . It's a stable, high performance 478 board based on i7205 chipset support 533 fsb cpu with or w/o hyperthreading and had built in many overclock features like cpu fsb, cpu overvolt , memory voltages and timings agp slot voltage 1.5-1.7V and many others.
I'd used this mobo for testing many agp videocard from geforce2 to radeon 4650agp and usualy change fsb/frequency to cpu for put in evidence different benchmark score .

Core features :
i7205 workstation class chipset (like i875)
Dualchannel memory ddr 266 four slot (i usualy put in 2gb of ddr400 on two sticks of corsair).
Ich4 southbridge with sata controller by silicon image.
High compatibility with several videocard agp, agp pro slot version( i tried gf2, gf3 ti500, gf4 4200/4400, gf5200 and 5700, 6200agp, 7600gs , radeon 3450 a lit bit more complicated installation of others, and radeon 4650/ddr2 1gb).
Sata driver coming on with sp3 .
If you put a universal agp connector vga and require high current, the mainboard not powerup and blinking a red led.
Realtek ALC650 6-channel .
Broadcom Gigabit ethernet controller .

in functionality is two step ahead vs std 845pe mobo .

The big defect is 800 fsb that some 845pe mobo had obtained with a bios upgrade.

darkmercury wrote:

I'd bougth an Asus p4G8-del. 2 years ago . It's a stable, high performance 478 board based on i7205 chipset support 533 fsb cpu […]
Show full quote

I'd bougth an Asus p4G8-del. 2 years ago . It's a stable, high performance 478 board based on i7205 chipset support 533 fsb cpu w/o hyperthreading and had built in many overclock features like cpu fsb, cpu overvolt , memory voltages and timings agp slot voltage 1.5-1.7V and many others.
I'd used this mobo for testing many agp videocard from geforce2 to radeon 4650agp and usualy change fsb/frequency to cpu for put in evidence different benchmark score .

Core features :
i7205 workstation class chipset (like i875)
Dualchannel memory ddr 266 four slot (i usualy put in 2gb of ddr400 on two sticks of corsair).
Ich4 southbridge with sata controller by silicon image.
High compatibility with several videocard agp, agp pro slot version( i tried gf2, gf3 ti500, gf4 4200/4400, gf5200 and 5700, 6200agp, 7600gs , radeon 3450 a lit bit more complicated installation of other, and radeon 4650/ddr2 1gb).
Sata driver coming on with sp3 .
If you put a universal agp connector vga and require high current, the mainboard not powerup and blinking a red led.
Realtek ALC650 6-channel .
Broadcom Gigabit ethernet controller .

in functionality is two step ahead vs std 845pe mobo .

The big defect is 800 fsb that some 845pe mobo had obtained with a bios upgrade.

ASUS P4G8X Deluxe and P4G8X supports HT acording to ASUS specs, specifically the P4 3.06 Ghz (only Northwood with FSB533 and HT)

Source: ASUS CPU support: http://www.asus.com/supportonly/P4G8X%20Deluxe/HelpDesk_CPU/

Asus NCT-D
Memory Slots: 4 EEC Registered ddr2 slots
CPU interface: SK604
Chipset: Intel E7525 North Bridge, Intel 6300ESB South Bridge
Form Factor: ATX
Expansion Slots: 1 x PCI Express x16, 1 x8 slot (x4 link),1 x PCI Slot, 2 66mhz pci-x slots
NIC: Broadcom BCM5751
IDE: ATA100
SATA2

My Rating: ***

Has the (imo) the best overclocking support for a sk604 board. But dose not fallow ATX/Intel p4 or pci-e power regulation so one need to be careful when picking a pcie video card as the pci-e slot gets power from the one of the 2 4 pin cpu power cables. It also only supports 800fsb cpu's. However if you want a netbrust power house this is the board to get. Just make sure you get a video card that uses less then 50w or so from the pci-e slot and your good.

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE […]
Show full quote

ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE

Supported CPU: Socket 478, Pentium 4 Prescott / Celeron D FSB 800/533 MHz, Hyper-Threading Technology
Chipset: Intel 865PE, South Bridge: Intel ICH5R
Onboard Video: None
Memory: DDR 400, Number of Memory Slots 4×184pin, Maximum Memory Supported 4GB, Dual Channel
Expansion Slots: 1 x AGP 4X / 8X, PCI Slots 5 x PCI Slots, 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi slot for optional wireless LAN upgrade
Storage Devices: PATA: 3 x ATA100, 4 x SATA 1.5 Gb/s, SATA RAID RAID 0/1/0+1, Multiple RAID, Additional RAID Controller Promise PDC20378
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC850 8 Channels
Onboard LAN: Marvell 88E8001, Second LAN Chipset: Intel, Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 4x USB 2.0, 1x IEEE 1394a, 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial, 6 Audio Ports
Form Factor: ATX
Dimensions: (W x L) 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin: 20 Pin
Year: 2004
Drivers & Downloads: http://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/19/1/8/

My rating: *****

Pros: Very good performance hands down best socket 478 board (in my opinion), very good overclocking p4 3.4GHz @ 3.84GHz stable
Cons: I have yet to find one

Please, please don't give this thing a 5 star rating. The P4P800 line is HORRIBLY unreliable. They will die for no reason whatsoever - one minute it's working, you restart your PC and it's dead. Others pop mosfets when using anything faster then a 2.8Ghz northwood. I literally had a box filled with dead P4P800-X, P4P800 Deluxe, P4P800-SE and P4P800-MX boards - all dead. Most recently I got a never opened, new in box P4P800-X - it worked for exactly 1 hour. I installed windows, installed the video card driver, restarted the PC and it died.

The P4C800 based on the i875 is another story altogether. Those deserve 4.5 to 5 stars.

My rating: ** tops.

Yea i think im going to change my rating after the nightmare i had with it and your right 2 stars tops.

kanecvr wrote:

Please, please don't give this thing a 5 star rating. The P4P800 line is HORRIBLY unreliable. They will die for no reason whatso […]
Show full quote

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE […]
Show full quote

ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE

Supported CPU: Socket 478, Pentium 4 Prescott / Celeron D FSB 800/533 MHz, Hyper-Threading Technology
Chipset: Intel 865PE, South Bridge: Intel ICH5R
Onboard Video: None
Memory: DDR 400, Number of Memory Slots 4×184pin, Maximum Memory Supported 4GB, Dual Channel
Expansion Slots: 1 x AGP 4X / 8X, PCI Slots 5 x PCI Slots, 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi slot for optional wireless LAN upgrade
Storage Devices: PATA: 3 x ATA100, 4 x SATA 1.5 Gb/s, SATA RAID RAID 0/1/0+1, Multiple RAID, Additional RAID Controller Promise PDC20378
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC850 8 Channels
Onboard LAN: Marvell 88E8001, Second LAN Chipset: Intel, Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 4x USB 2.0, 1x IEEE 1394a, 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial, 6 Audio Ports
Form Factor: ATX
Dimensions: (W x L) 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin: 20 Pin
Year: 2004
Drivers & Downloads: http://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/19/1/8/

My rating: *****

Pros: Very good performance hands down best socket 478 board (in my opinion), very good overclocking p4 3.4GHz @ 3.84GHz stable
Cons: I have yet to find one

Please, please don't give this thing a 5 star rating. The P4P800 line is HORRIBLY unreliable. They will die for no reason whatsoever - one minute it's working, you restart your PC and it's dead. Others pop mosfets when using anything faster then a 2.8Ghz northwood. I literally had a box filled with dead P4P800-X, P4P800 Deluxe, P4P800-SE and P4P800-MX boards - all dead. Most recently I got a never opened, new in box P4P800-X - it worked for exactly 1 hour. I installed windows, installed the video card driver, restarted the PC and it died.

The P4C800 based on the i875 is another story altogether. Those deserve 4.5 to 5 stars.

My rating: ** tops.

My old P4P800-E died suddenly after 8 months when trying to move to anohter case after months of no use, another P4P800 i used for another build, decided to use that board for testing around 100 optical drives and died during the testing (at around drive nº 25). I didn't even need to restart, the board died while the PC was on, basically the screen turned black and didn't work again

The P4P800 now doesn't POST at all without beeps and making some whistle noises, i also saw a bad cap near the northbrige.

Planning to get something i875P in the future like ASUS P4C800, MSI 875 series, Abit IC7 or the Intel D875PBZ

one question, only the just P4P800 series are affeected or does more i865 series ASUS mobos are affected as like like the P5P800 series and the ASUS P5PE-VM (LGA 775 versions)? i had also an ASUS P5PE-VM dying for without reason

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

Pros: Very good performance with windows xp, it does have decent overclocking p4 3.4GHz @ 3.84GHz stable
Cons: Very bad 9x support, Bios updates are not existent cause Asus decided to end this board very fast in favor of the deluxe board also discussed in other forums on that note good luck finding a newer bios.

This is wrong. There are not two different boards. There is only one board known as P4P800-E Deluxe, which is sometimes referred to just as P4P800-E (including on the PCB itself). This is the second time recently I see this misinformation posted. I have been keeping track of ASUS's 865PE/875P boards, owned a couple myself, read about them extensively at the time they were relevant, and not once found any evidence of there being two different boards in the P4P800-E line-up. Either post some evidence that will surprise us all (and I will eat my laptop for being wrong), or correct the post, please. 😀

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

Yea i think im going to change my rating after the nightmare i had with it and your right 2 stars tops.

Could you share some information on that nightmare in your original post? Is it just because it does not have what you define to be good Win9x support? Because as it is, it seems that you are giving it a bad review because someone else told you it was bad. That is not how these things are supposed to work, I think. We should each rate things based on our own personal experiences.

kanecvr wrote:

Please, please don't give this thing a 5 star rating. The P4P800 line is HORRIBLY unreliable. They will die for no reason whatsoever - one minute it's working, you restart your PC and it's dead. Others pop mosfets when using anything faster then a 2.8Ghz northwood. I literally had a box filled with dead P4P800-X, P4P800 Deluxe, P4P800-SE and P4P800-MX boards - all dead. Most recently I got a never opened, new in box P4P800-X - it worked for exactly 1 hour. I installed windows, installed the video card driver, restarted the PC and it died.

Is it you who we had a long technical conversation about the reliability of the P4P800 series, based on statistics? I don't remember. I cannot argue with your numbers, though I have to wonder if perhaps the sampling is skewed due to there maybe being more ASUS boards in the wild than other brands (in many parts of the world they had been the #1 most popular brand at the time, and not only then).

My personal experience is far more modest, but more positive; it included a P4P800-E that ran for ~8 years with a 3GHz CPU with no issues, until it started succumbing to age (which is quite reasonable for a board, even if some last longer). It was replaced with another used P4P800-E which only lasted for 1-2 years, but that may be due to physical deformation (I only later noticed that it was warped around the socket). Now that system hosts a P4C800-E.

kanecvr wrote:

The P4C800 based on the i875 is another story altogether. Those deserve 4.5 to 5 stars.

It's really hard to do an accurate evaluation of these claims, since there were so many different flavors of P4P800/P4C800, and sometimes multiple revisions of the same board. I find it generally possible that certain flaws were fixed, and maybe others introduced between revisions. It is also theoretically possible that with the P4C being the flagship, ASUS used slightly better materials / processes / testing compared to the P4P, although I doubt it, since it's basically the same board, and what makes it flagship and premium and pricy is the Intel 875P chipset versus 865PE.

For example, a lot has been said about the faults in the the ESD tolerance on the ICH5/ICH5R USB controllers (coupled with ASUS's possibly poor implementation) causing southbridges to blow when things are connected to improperly grounded front panel USB ports. The same ICH is used on the P4P and P4C series, so I don't know why this fault should be more common on one than on the other. Although maybe it is? Is there any explanation to that?

Carlos S. M. wrote:

The P4P800 now doesn't POST at all without beeps and making some whistle noises, i also saw a bad cap near the northbrige.

If you see a bad cap, this is already good. 😀 Most of them fail without any bad caps or visible signs of damage, and go figure out which component went bad.

Carlos S. M. wrote:

one question, only the just P4P800 series are affeected or does more i865 series ASUS mobos are affected as like like the P5P800 series and the ASUS P5PE-VM (LGA 775 versions)? i had also an ASUS P5PE-VM dying for without reason

All boards can fail without reason. I had a new Gigabyte G41M-ES2L die electrically during normal work on the first day of operation. That does not mean it is necessarily a common fault; a sample size of 1 means nothing. The replacement G41M-ES2L I got has been working for several years in the same system without a single hiccup...

Do you have this exact board with 9x on it, have you tried? good luck with that on these board.

And no my opinion was based on my own after flashing the bios with a deluxe bios from asus website, take a look at this scroll down to part 6 http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/as … -bios-7734.html

I wouldn't consider trying Win9x on this board. This board's capabilities and the CPU/chipset performance would be wasted on Win9x. Sure, some like to build these "ultimate maximum fastest possible" rigs, but I don't see much appeal to this.

I believe you that the board might have issues with Win9x and that not all things work well. Then again, yours may have just been defective in some way from the beginning.

As I said, I owned two such boards at some point in time, and I flashed BIOS to the latest on both of them. Never had any issues. I don't know what you did wrong, or maybe you just had bad luck (it does happen). The thread you link to, BTW, does not even mention the P4P800-E and was started before the board was even released (which was Q2-2004, IIRC).