Asus P4C800 Review

Jeriko

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Apr 3, 2001
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How much of a improvement is to be expected from the final BIOS?

The performance boost so far seems relatively meager for the $100 premium.

-J
 

jaeger66

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Jan 1, 2001
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I've always liked Asus(love my P4B533-V), but the P4C800 is off my Canterwood list. They did a poor job of maximizing the 875/ICH5 potential.
 

Viper96720

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Jul 15, 2002
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Is the serial ata integrated or still a separate chip? Was hard to tell from the review.
 

Spicedaddy

Platinum Member
Apr 18, 2002
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Serial-ATA is integrated into the ICH5 south bridge...


I was waiting for this board, but I think I'll just get a BH7. Half the price, I can go buy one tomorrow morning, and performance is pretty close. Should do the job until Springdale boards are out for a while and get cheaper.
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
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Humph...I see ~3 - 6% over SC DDR just like Granite Bay. I expected more. I need to see some more reviews. Looking forward to Evan's reviews.
 

human2k

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2001
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Any predictions on the retail price of this board? If its under $150 im sold.:p



Cheers.:beer:
 

jaeger66

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Originally posted by: oldfart
Humph...I see ~3 - 6% over SC DDR just like Granite Bay. I expected more. I need to see some more reviews. Looking forward to Evan's reviews.

Look at how inefficient it is, only getting about 1.8GBps out of that second 3.2 GBps channel.
 

jaeger66

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Jan 1, 2001
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Originally posted by: oldfart
Look at how inefficient it is, only getting about 1.8GBps out of that second 3.2 GBps channel.
Where do those numbers come from?

Bandwidth is about 5.0 GBps out of a possible 6.4. The problem with the P4 has always been memory bandwidth lagging behind the fsb. Dual channel DDR was supposed to be the answer, but sadly it isn't so far. Example: DDR333 on a 533 fsb P4 gets you 2.7 GBPs of mem bandwidth with the 4.2GBps of the fsb. Or, about 64% of the fsb. Dual DDR 400 on a 800 fsb P4 gets you 5.0 GBps with the 6.4GBps of the fsb. Or, about 78%. Better, but hardly stellar.
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
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Bandwidth is about 5.0 GBps out of a possible 6.4
I guess you are refering to the SiSoft 5000 score? I dont really trust SiSift, but lets say the score should have been more like 6200. I have one guess.

I've wondered if the board makers would put in a mem divider to allow a 800 MHz FSB CPU to use PC2700 instead of PC3200 like the 4:3 that allowed 533 MHz FSB CPUs to use PC1600 instead of PC2100. To use PC2700 on an 800 MHz FSB CPU would be a ~6:5 ratio. That would bring a ~ 6200 score down to ~ 5000. Maybe they used such a divider and didn't know it? If there is a divider like that. it is good news for overclockers since you will need it to overclock an 800 MHz FSB CPU and still use available memory.
 

jaeger66

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Jan 1, 2001
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Originally posted by: oldfart

I've wondered if the board makes would put in a mem divider to allow a 800 MHz FSB CPU to use PC2700 instead of PC3200 like the 4:3 that allowed 533 MHz FSB CPUs to use PC1600 instead of PC2100. To use PC2700 on an 800 MHz FSB CPU would be a ~6:5 ratio. That would bring a ~ 6200 score down to ~ 5000. Maybe they used such a divider and didn't know it? If there is a divider like that. it is good news for overclockers since you will need it to overclock an 800 MHz FSB CPU and still use available memory.

That's possible, OTOH the 5.0 score meshes with the other scores I've seen, some as low as 4.5. I guess we'll find out tomorrow for sure. I'm not big on Sandra either, but it's usually OK at mem bandwidth.

I looked over the Asus manual and it SEEMS that the memory and fsb are independent which would be good not only for OCers but for people with 533/400 CPUs since you could use dual 400 and get the full mem speed to match your fsb.
 

DOOPYLOOPY

Senior member
Aug 11, 2000
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hmm still looking forward to Evan's review.......so what's that showing the DC DDR isn't outperforming SC DDR by much at all?
 

ElFenix

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Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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Originally posted by: jaeger66
Originally posted by: oldfart
Look at how inefficient it is, only getting about 1.8GBps out of that second 3.2 GBps channel.
Where do those numbers come from?

Bandwidth is about 5.0 GBps out of a possible 6.4. The problem with the P4 has always been memory bandwidth lagging behind the fsb. Dual channel DDR was supposed to be the answer, but sadly it isn't so far. Example: DDR333 on a 533 fsb P4 gets you 2.7 GBPs of mem bandwidth with the 4.2GBps of the fsb. Or, about 64% of the fsb. Dual DDR 400 on a 800 fsb P4 gets you 5.0 GBps with the 6.4GBps of the fsb. Or, about 78%. Better, but hardly stellar.

thats all well and good but damn near useless without knowing what % of theoretical the agtl bus is able to xfer.