Asus P4C800-E: Updating the Intel Flagship
by Wesley Fink on August 30, 2003 10:55 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Asus P4C800-E: BIOS and Overclocking
Asus has not made significant changes to the layout of the AMI BIOS used on the P4C800-E and P4C800 Deluxe. The available settings have been improved significantly as we have already said.FSB Overclocking Results
The following setup was used on the Asus P4C800-E for FSB overclocking:| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Intel 2.4C 800FSB Pentium 4 |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.525V (default) |
| Cooling: | Thermalright SK-900U with 120mm Thermaltake Fan |
| Memory: | 2 x 256MB Corsair 3200LL at SPD |
| Power Supply: | Powmax 350W |
While we could boot into Windows XP at overclocked speeds as high as 302 raw FSB at default voltage, the highest stable FSB overclocking that we could achieve at default voltage was 288 (1160 FSB). While this is the best overclocking result we have seen with an Intel motherboard at AnandTech, please keep in mind that the overclocking abilities of CPUs do vary considerably. Tests of other Intel boards have used a different 2.4C CPU. However, in my past tests of this same CPU on Abit, DFI, Aopen, Asus and Gigabyte motherboards, this is the highest overclock achieved with this CPU.
Still, these results are about the same as the highest overclock achieved with the P4C800 Deluxe with 1.010 BIOS. It would appear that the overclocking abilities of the Asus P4C800-E at least match those of the excellent P4C800 Deluxe.
Highest stable overclock achieved with the Intel 3.0 800FSB CPU at default voltage was 245 raw FSB (980FSB). This is the stable overclocking limit of this CPU.
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0sparkie - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
I have just download the .pdf manual of the P4C800-E. The manual says that "If installing the ATi 9500 or 9700 Pro Series VGA cards, use only the card version PN xxx-xxxxx-30 or later, for optimum performance and overcloking stability (chapter 2.6.4)." As I have just bought a Gigabyte Radeon 9800Pro (GV-R98P128D) Version : PN109-A07500-00 {SN0322009623} I began to worry. Is it compatible? Will it be stable if I OC it? Shall I have the optimum perfomance of my VGA ? If anyone can answer this .... (thanks)amdecos - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
But what about the 512 vs 1 GB area? That is still expensive territory, especially if you want the higher speed DDR (>3500). Would 1 GB of 3200 DDR even out with 512K of 3500 DDR?Icewind - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
#17Only thing that justifies more then a Gig of memory would be music or video editing and or CAD/arcitechure or an absolute crap load of multitasking.
amdecos - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
The test were based on 2x256 memory yes? Did you also look at 1GB (of 2 or 4 sticks)? Is there a real benefit to gaming by going to 1 GB or is this more a multi tasking benefit?Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
The whole Prescott support situation is still very clouded.Some motherboards might support initial lower speed Prescotts up to 1.5 specs, but not necessarily support later Prescotts (still 478 socket though) which require 2.0 level specs.
So, be careful what you buy. Even if Abit says they will support Prescott, it doesn't mean that the board in question will support all socket 478 Prescott CPU's up to and including the 3.8GHz model.
Just so that you know...
Anonymous User - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
#14 if you want maximum OC ability, do the Abit. If you want stability, get the ASUS. Im more for stability, so you know which one I chose and I couldn't be happier, my P4 just keeps going higher and higher the more I push the FSBAnonymous User - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
This board seems solid but i am looking at 2 boards that i want the asus P4C800-E and the abit ic7-max3. Wesley when will you do a review on the ic7-max3 board??Anonymous User - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
Awesome review, although I would be very interested in the PSU used in this review.Anonymous User - Sunday, August 31, 2003 - link
I am thrilled that you are doing reviews for Anandtech now. You test and write for the enthusiast, and the overclocker in particular. This is just the direction that Anandtech needed to go to get me reading the articles again.Thanks a lot!
Wesley Fink - Sunday, August 31, 2003 - link
The Asus P4C800-E did NOT drop out of Dual-Channel running 4DS dimms faster than 800FSB. In that configuration, PAT was disabled, which made 4DS dimms about 1 to 2% slower than 2DS dimms. We still don't know if this is true with ALL 875P boards, i.e. an Intel issue, or if is an issue unique to Asus. 4 SS dimms run fine with PAT still working over 800FSB, as does any other configuration.