ASUS P4C800 is the latest workstatoin class mainboard from ASUS. Based on the new Canterwood DDR400 chipset, it has brought performance leaps into the Dual Channel DDR400 category. This new chipset supports the new 800Mhz CPUs, Gigabit Ethernet, Hyper-Threading Technology, 6-channel sound, RAID, SATA, 1394.

In our tests, we find that the performance of this board pretty good for an early BIOS. Comparing it to i845PE overclocked, the 875P chipset runs much cooler than our o/c 845PE with the same CPU averaging around 55 Deg Celsius. This resulted in a bit of instability on the ABIT BH7 until we lowered the CPU voltage supplied to it.

Although this board is meant as a workstation class board, it does not throw out the overclocking features that overclockers love like 100~400 FSB selectable and voltage adjustments. The PCI/AGP can also be fixed to 33/66. We tested the board and managed to run max at 215Mhz FSB at cpu:fsb=1:1 ratio. Well overclocking really depends on a bit of luck.

Documentation is easy to understand. All the necessary connectors are clearly documented. Perhaps colour coding the connectors on board would help too. Some installation problem would be the connectors for floppy and IDE overlapping one another. The board also seems very squeezed at bottom left corner of board with most connectors, they can be spaced out a bit.

Overall, an impressive board that has almost all the things any one would ever thought of. From Gigabit Ethernet with Cable tester to WI-FI ready to SATA, RAID. The only thing lacking is a SCSI connector since this is supposed to be a workstation class board. Well perhaps you could try the 10K RPM SATA WD Raptor instead for your new machine based on the ASUS P4C800.

Suggested Retail : NA

Discuss

Pros 好处:

• 6 Channel audio
• USB 2.0 
• Gigabit LAN
• 1394
• SATA, RAID
• Voice Diagnostics
• Overclocking - up to 400Mhz FSB, PCI FIX
• WI-FI connector for future wireless LAN connectivity

Cons 坏处:

• No SCSI
• Board seems squeezed at bottom left corner of board with connectors
• Placement of IDE and Floppy connector awkward

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.

Product Excellence