Opinons: ASUS P4G8X DELUXE

DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
edited December 2003 in Hardware
My company is looking at doing a rollout of 50 to 100 computers for a client. Original quote was done months ago, so the Intel motherboard we specced is not available any more. Doing some research we came across this model from Asus which is getting rave reviews across the Net:

http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4g8x-d/overview.htm

The price on it is unbelievable (under $90) for the features it packs, including SATA RAID 0 and 1.

For the client's project we require:

- Intel Chipset
- P4 CPU
- SATA RAID 1 (mirroring)
- At least 100 GB storage x 2
- 4 PCI slots (of which 2 to 4 will be populated)
- onboard ethernet.

Thoughts on this board, or a comparably priced alternatives.

Please don't tell me to go with an AMD compatible board instead, that decision has already been made by the client, so it's Intel all the way (there will be no overclocking on these systems either.)

Thanks in advance,

Dexter...

Comments

  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited December 2003
    looks like a nice board, you really can't go wrong with asus
  • madmatmadmat
    edited December 2003
    That board when it came out was the one to beat and ran about $265.00 so for $90.00 you can't go wrong.
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Haven't checked pricing but...for a client like that, I would be inclined to go with an Intel board, such as (slightly more current) 875P board. Bonus benefit, with the ICH5R southbridge in 875P, the SATA Raid is not in the PCI channel.

    There are a couple of issues with the chipset (experienced user here, tho not of the Asus one, I own the Gigabyte 8INXP) that likely WON'T affect your client, for example, E7205 does NOT support 8X AGP and there are compatibility issues with ATI video cards.

    Last point vs this board, Asus power regulation on their last few high end boards has been awful. On my P4C800-E Deluxe, vcore when set at 1.5875 will vary from 1.65 idle to 1.52 load (depending on what's being done). SimGuy will verify this statement, at least for the P4C800E-Deluxe, but it does also apply to several other boards including the one you are suggesting.

    Will it work? Hell yes, and it's a nice board. Will the above issues have long term impact? Up to you and your client to decide, obviously.

    PS- you probably know this, but, the E-7205 chipset runs dual channel but only at DDR266, whereas an 875P runs DDR400. The E-7205 WILL NOT RUN the 'C' cpu's @ "800" fsb. OK they'll install and boot up but be way underclocked, and there's no fix to get that board up to 200fsb, it tops out 180ish.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited December 2003
    Keto,

    thanks for your insightful comments. The initial board specced in months ago was an Intel 845GEBV2L, with a Promise IDE RAID controller to handle the storage needs.

    We have tested the Intel 875PERL, and even did a single system for a different customer using the onboard SATA RAID. It was a very nice system, and performed very well with 2 of our proprietarty multi-channel MPEG playback cards in it for Video On Demand playback.

    I wasn't aware that on the Asus board the SATA runs through the PCI channel. Can you source me some more info on that?

    According to the spec sheet I have, the P4G8X has AGP 8X on board, hence the 8X in the name. Can you source me some info on that as well? Or is that strictly a Gigabyte issue? Although ultimately, that is not going to be a big issue to us, we will likely go AGP4X, the only stipulation to this mobo is that it only has 1.5 volt power to the AGP. But the client's servers are not normally even going to be connected to a VGA display, they will be remotely mangaged, so it is not a huge issue.

    For CPU, we are looking at a P4 2.4 @ 533 and for RAM a single 512 MB at 333, so we should be safe there.

    If you could link me some info on those items I have listed, I would appreciate it.

    Thanks!

    Dexter...
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    First things first, SATA is on a Silicon Image controller (as referenced from the 'specifications' page linked from the page you linked @ Asus). That controller's going to be on the PCI bus but I'm still looking for something definitive on that. There's a thread here , 4th post down, that references this point but it seems to be an opinion rather than something carved in stone. All I can add is that all the copious reading I have done on the 875 chipset expresses enthusiasm for the "fact" that for the first time, RAID can be run outside of the PCI bus, due to the ICH5R having "its own" channel in the system.

    There's a very long thread here on ABXZone (formerly Asusboards.com) that discusses the AGP issue. There are workarounds (set AGP to 4X, disable fastwrites in both bios and SmartGart/ATI Control Panel) and it does seem to be strictly ATI GPU cards that are affected, ie, nVidia cards run fine @ 8X. There's further reference to the issue here on TheInquirer but the link to the Intel white paper is dead and I can't find it searching on Intel's site. I read the white paper at one point and, to paraphrase, Intel stated that 8X is NOT supported by the chipset and that they have/had no plans on working any further on the issue.

    /me eyes tired :D
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Dexter had this to say
    For CPU, we are looking at a P4 2.4 @ 533 and for RAM a single 512 MB at 333, so we should be safe there.

    If you do decide to go with this board (by the way, please don't take my post as "railing against" it, I restate that it's overall a very nice and full featured board), please get 2 X 256 MB RAM per system, rather than 1 X 512, there ARE decided advantages and benefits to running dual channel. Unless, of course, you're scraping for the last few pennies to stay within a budget and going single sticks is cheaper.

    If you read long enough on the above referenced ABXZone, in the Intel Chipset forums, you will find other references to the voltage issues as pertain to this particular board. Apparently, the P4G8X OVERvolts rather significantly (tho not dangerously), some opinions said that it was a potential/possible cause of heat problems. I take the heat thing with a grain of salt, personally.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited December 2003
    A system we built using that very same board with an AIW Radeon 9700 pro ran in 8X AGP mode without a hitch with a 3.06Ghz P4 in it and 4x256mb's of Corsair PC3200 LLPT loaded in it and was getting pretty decent performance BUT it had to have the CL on the ram lowered to 2.5-3-3-6 1t to run properly.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited December 2003
    Keto's covered all the main quirks with the Granite Bay chipset.

    Make sure to run it in Dual-Channel mode or you'll starve that system of data. Dual-Channel DDR266 @ extremely low-latencies will offer the best performance (4.2 GB/sec of bandwidth, perfectly matched with the requirement of 533 MHz FSB P4B's).

    Granite Bay does not "officially" support AGP8x, but Intel's I850E was not supposed to officially support "PC1066 RDRAM" yet it works fine. It might work on this Asus... then again it might not. Again, not sure.

    There are compatability issues with certain Granite Bay motherboards and ATI's Radeon cards.

    On this board, RAID runs across the PCI bus as it must use an external RAID chip. There are no dedicated RAID buses, as Granite Bay uses the older ICH4 I/O Controller Hub without RAID support.

    Honestly, as long as you are running these systems within normal operating range (IE not overclocked), the overvoltage problems won't bother you at all. Those Intel Retail Heatsinks are tough-as-nails and can withstand much more punishment than a simple 0.1V voltage increase over the stock 1.525V (might be 1.55).. :)
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Moving forward and looking to possible other recommendations, the Abit IS7 is based on the 865 chipset BUT has almost all of the desirable features from the 875. It has the ICH5R for RAID 0 or 1, and it has PAT enhancement. It does NOT have the Gigabit LAN but does have onboard 10/100. I can find it in Canada for about $140, comparably priced to the Intel D865PERL, which is the only 865 board I can find from Intel that has the RAID function (I had to dig into the FAQ to find it from that page). I'm sure buying 50-100 you will be receiving further price breaks.

    The only issue I'm aware of with the IS7 is the common "northbridge fan dead/dying" issue also found on other Abit products, such as (my) NF7-S. The Intel uses passive cooling.

    Both have 5 PCI slots, onboard audio (the Intel's would probably be better, believe it or not), and the Intel has (the same?) 10/100 LAN.**EDIT the tech specs document says the Intel has the Gigabit**

    The obvious benefits are 1) RAID not flowing through PCI bus 2) 200fsb. Neither board is *as* full featured as the P4G8X, and they're going to cost a little more. Plus, there's probably a cost premium to go to PC3200 as opposed to PC2100 for the Asus. The 2.4C and even 2.6C cpu's are about the same $ as the older 2.4B 533 these days - in fact, you *may* have difficulty finding either version of 2.4 in quantity. Having said that, they are FAR cheaper than "months ago" when you did your initial quote.
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