X-bit labs

ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe: New ASUS Mainboard on Old i865PE Chipset (page 2)

Category: Mainboards

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 06/06/2004 | 03:29 PM ]

Specification

As you understand, the formal characteristics of the P4P800-E Deluxe don’t differ greatly from the ones of the older basic model, the ASUS P4P800 Deluxe. In fact, only the number of IDE channels has changed – the new additional ATA RAID controller on the P4P800-E Deluxe supports two SerialATA-150 and one ATA/133 channel, while the analogous controller on the older version of the mainboard only supported a couple of ATA/133 channels. Another curious feature of the P4P800-E Deluxe is the advanced eight-channel AC’97 audio codec.

I’d like to note that the P4P800-E Deluxe has no cheap modifications, stripped of onboard controllers, yet. Well, the ordinary P4P800 may well play the role of this cheap version. And if you go shopping for an advanced mainboard, rich in additional capabilities, be ready to shell out about $130-140 for a P4P800-E Deluxe mainboard from ASUS.

The ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe came to our test laboratory in its Wireless Edition. This version of the product is shipped in a big colorful box that also contains:

• the ASUS WiFi-b kit (a user manual, a bipolar antenna and a wireless network card plugging into the special-purpose WiFi slot and supporting the IEEE 802.11b protocol);
• a CD with standard drivers and utilities;
• a WinCinema CD with additional software including WinDVD Platinum 5, WinRip 2 and WinDVD Creator Platinum 2;
• two SerialATA cables and one power cable for two SATA HDDs;
• two 80-pin Parallel ATA cables and a FDD cable;
• a bracket for the back panel of the system case with two USB 2.0 ports and one Game port;
• an I/O shield;
• a user manual.

The accessories are rich, really. The ASUS WiFi-b kit deserves our recommendation – it allows for an easy deployment of a wireless network. Again, you should note that only the Wireless Edition of the P4P800-E Deluxe mainboard comes with this nice addition. Mainboards without the wireless controller cost about $10 less.