Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe & Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra: SiS 655TX Challenges Intel's Best
by Wesley Fink on December 9, 2003 1:52 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: Asus P4S800D-E vs. Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra
| Motherboard Specifications | ||
| Asus P4S800D-E | Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra | |
| CPU Interface | Socket 478 Pentium 4 and Prescott | |
| Chipset | SiS 655TX North Bridge/SiS 964 South Bridge | |
| Bus Speeds | 200 to 300MHz (in 1MHz increments) | 200 to 355MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | FIXED at 66/33. No adjustment, but PCI/AGP does not float |
AUTO, Fixed at 66/33, or fixed at 60-100 in 1Mhz increments |
| Available CPU Ratios | Not available with Standard Intel Processors | Not available with Standard Intel Processors |
| Core Voltage | Normal, +0.1V | 0.8375 - 1.6 in 0.0125V increments |
| DRAM Voltage | Normal, 2.55V to 2.85V in 0.1V increments | Normal, +0.1V |
| AGP Voltage | 1.5V to 1.8V in 0.1V increments | |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total |
|
| Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots, WiFi Slot |
1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots |
| Onboard Serial ATA/RAID | SiS 964 (2 Drives, 0, 1) SiS 180 (2 Drives, 0, 1, 0+1) |
SiS 964 (2 Drives, 0, 1) |
| Onboard IDE/RAID | SiS 964 (4 drives ATA133) SiS 180 (2 drives, 0, 1, 0+1) |
SiS 964 (4 drives ATA133) GigaRaid (4 drives, 0, 1, 0+1) |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports by 964 2 1394a FireWire ports |
8 USB 2.0 ports by 964 2 1394a FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | Marvell Gigabit LAN | Realtek Gigabit LAN |
| Onboard Audio | ADI AD1888 SoundMax 6-Channel with SPDIF | Realtek ALC658 codec AC '97 2.3 6-Channel with UAJ |
| BIOS Revision | 1001.023 Beta | Pre-Release 655TX.M3 |
With both the Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra and Asus P4S800D-E based on the same North Bridge/South Bridge combination, there are many common features provided by the chipset.
The 655TX North Bridge provides the Dual-Channel memory controller with support for up to 4GB of DDR400 memory. Support for 8X/4X AGP is also provided by the 655TX.
The Introduction of the 964 South Bridge with the most recent SiS chipsets has allowed motherboards based on the SiS chipset finally to compete on features with the best from Intel. The 964 allows both the Asus and Gigabyte to offer 8 USB 2.0 ports, dual ATA133 IDE, Serial ATA with the option for RAID 0 and 1, and 6-channel audio.
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FFS - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
Q? to Wesley does these mobos have control of CPU fan speed (again like MSI Neo2), so it run more slow with low CPU load (= more silent)?Another one is how it's compatible with Radeon 9700 Pro? F.e. My SIS648 even with latest SIS-AGP drivers have have a conflict with Hercules R9700Pro when Fast Write is turned on...
Competition is G R E A T E thing,... but you know we also want stability :))) So far, as I know Intel chipsets before were far more stable and compatible with other hardware...
The bottom line "as fast" does not always mean "as good"... :(( And since I also love competition let's hope that SIS655TX as good as 875P.
ripdude - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
A good article on a serie of good boards, I'm very happy you took the P4C800-E dlx in the test.I'm more then happy with the increased competition these boards bring, the P4C800-e dlx is still about 199 in euro land.
SmoiL - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
When is the Asus P4S800D-E coming out? Nada on pricewatchWesley Fink - Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - link
Several of the cells in the Feature Table on page 3 were reversed and have now been corrected.Dual Channel (2x64 bit) is called 128 bit mode on the SiS. The BIOS has the option to run 128-bit (Dual-Channel) mode or to force Dual 64-bit.
FFS - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - link
Also, as I remember VIA VT6307 support 3 (not 2) 1394a FireWire ports (as on MSI Neo boards), so why Gigabyte would cut them to 2 ???And besides Wesley always trying to stress out color-coded panel connectors.
For me it's more important that you can change RAM without taking off videocard and ASUS had such problems with some of their mobos (now it looks better... but talking about overclocking ... hmmmm.
Even it's damn stable: heatsink on ASUS SiS 655TX is passive (already -) and too close to CPU (plus wrong orientation - same mistake as with original
P4C800 Deluxe. So - NO oversized cooler for CPU on this board.
FFS - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - link
Realtek ALC658 codec AC '97 2.36-Channel with UAJ Shoud go to Gigabyte and vice versa...
Oh well.., I had my SIS648 for a while and .. so now I'd rather prefer to pay eXtra for board with Intel chipset :((
Plus Gigabit LAN will work faster(=better) with CSA...
FFS - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - link
Hey guys... In the features table on-board audio codecs are mixed up :)Shalmanese - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - link
Er, I don't think Sis supports 33Mhz Memory speeds... (pg 5) ;).What happened to the tech support turnaround time bit? That was always the favourite part of your reviews.
Tokelil - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - link
On page 3 it says its the Gigabyte MB that uses the Marvel Gigabit controller, while on page 4 it says its the asus board that uses the Marvel controller... My guess is it is Asus that uses it and its wrong on page 3.FishTankX - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - link
What on earth is the difference?There is no commercially avaliable 128 bit DDRSDRAM. All DDRSDRAM is 64 bit.