ASUS also didn’t use the North Bridge potential to the full extent. CSA bus remained uninvolved, though Intel intended it for gigabit network controllers, which could be connected this way avoiding the PCI bus. ASUS P4P800is equipped with a more traditional 3com 3C940 network controller, which is connected exactly via the PCI bus. Anyway, ASUS should have some reasons for that. This controller is not a bad one. It allows establishing network connections at up to 10/100/1000Mbit/sec and goes with a very nice 3COM Virtual Cable Tester utility, which is capable of detecting different problems with the network cable.

Also the mainboard features AC’97 sound codec. Since recently, ASUS cooperates with Analog Devices Company that is why no wonder that ASUS P4P800 is equipped with AD1985 codec. We would like to stress that this is a very good choice. AD1985 is the world’s first codec, which is fully compatible with AC’97 version 2.3 standard. It supports 6-channel sound and provides very high sounding quality. The sound quality tests of AD1985 were passed simply impeccably. Besides, this codec supports Audio ESP (Enumeration and Sensing Process) technology. It allows the codec to detect the devices connected to the sound ports of the board, and to inform the user if anything is connected incorrectly. The codec also supports S/PDIF, which coaxial connector is situated on the rear side of the mainboard next to the COM-port.

PCB Design

ASUS P4P800 mainboard is based on the same PCB as the more complex P4P800 Deluxe. Therefore, the PCB of our today’s hero also features specially laid out spots for the ATA RAID controller and IEEE1394 controller, while the controllers are not there. Since both mainboards are based on the same PCB, the design of the simpler P4P800 is pretty complex. However, despite this fact, ASUS engineers coped with this task very well, having laid out a great number of diverse components. The FDD and Parallel ATA connectors are located in front of the DIMM slots, together wit the major ATX power supply connector. The 12V power supply connector, like on many other mainboards, is moved to the rear end of the board, behind the chipset North Bridge. In this case, however, the connectors for additional USB ports appeared right in front of the PCI slots, which can certainly cause some problems.

Although ASUS P4P800 is equipped with only 5 PCI slots, the AGP slot is placed very closely to the DIMM slot clips. So, if the graphics card is installed into the AGP slot, you will be unable to install or remove the memory modules. The free room left by the missing 6^th PCI slot doesn’t have any components and belongs solely to the AGP slot. In fact, this is quite logical: the PCI slot situated next to the AGP is very rarely used, because some graphics cards have very massive cooling systems taking up this space, or the slot is left empty on purpose to ensure better graphics card cooling.

We would also like to point out that besides the already mentioned slots, ASUS P4P800 is also equipped with a special WiFi slot placed along the left edge of the PCB. It is intended for a special card for wireless LAN of 802.11b standard made by ASUS.