**"OFFICIAL"** Asus P4S8X Thread

[dbett]

Well there are a lot of seperate posts on this motherbboard, so we might as well talk about it here. I got mine last Friday and put everything together over the weekend. My thoughts:

1. Bundle is pretty comprehensive and includes numerous cables (including serial ATA cables), an expansion card with serial connector and additional USB (or firewire?) connections, nice collection of screws, an I/O cover plate and a few other odds and ends.

2. Comes with 2 manuals, one "quick start" and one that's more comprehensive. Also has a CD with drivers and some utilties, including a monitoring program for temp, fan speed, etc, and program to allow you to record new sounds for the voice post warnings.

3. The board installs easily (at least in my full size tower case - Antec 1080) but note that there are 4 mb screws in a seperate bag. I didn't notice and ended up using ones from the big bag -- not a big deal and it worked fine once I found some the right size, but it would have been easier to use the ones from the small bag.

4. I put in a 2.53 P4, and 2 sticks of Corsair 512Mb DDR 333 Ram with CL=2. Also have: 80Gb Western Digital SE hard drive (which has the 8Mb buffer), a Gainward GF4 4600 "Golden Sample", and the SB Audigy Platinum which has the front connection box.

5. Everything worked well including the front USB/Firewire connections which are built into the Antec case. Note you have to install the USB driver on the CD to enable USB 2.0 since Win XP didn't reocgnize the 2.0 function automatically (it did install the USB ports, but there was an "unrecognized hardware" in the system properties which was the USB 2.0 controller).

6. Also the +/- pin markings for the IDE activity LED connector are reversed in the manual (there is an insert which mainly deals with RAID that corrects it, but I missed it until I tried to figure out why the IDE LED wasn't working).

7. I haven't used the Serial ATA connnections or the ATA 133 connector which are controlled by the Promise chip. I've simply hooked up my single HD to the Primary IDE connector and my CD-RW and DVD drives to the secondary IDE. I did disable the Serial ATA function in Bios so it would stop scanning for it on every start up.

8. The bios automatically configured for the RAM, including the CAS latency setting. I tried (only briefly) to overclock the RAM to DDR 400, but it crashed as windows was starting. I didn't try much (ie I didn't back off the various latency settings). I also haven't tried to overclock the CPU yet as I've been busy just getting WinXp set up and installing shit.


All in all, I'm happy and have had no problems (other than the IDE activity LED).

One question I have for others relates to the Promise controller. It controls the 2 Serial ATA connections and the ATA-133 connection and the possible RAID functions of those connections. My question is can I hook my single HD up to the ATA-133 connector and, obviously, not use RAID. I want to install a 56x cddrive and don't want to have it sharing the primary ide channel with my hard drive. And if I can, any thoughts on switching over since I've already installed WinXP with the drive on the primary IDE channel? Will I need to reinstall WinXP, or can I simply switch the hard drive to the Promise controller and reboot? There is a Promise driver on the CD, so perhaps I should install that before the switch?

[Edited to add some links]


The official Asus site.

OCworkbench Review.

CPU 3D Review.

 

[vm]

Nice, thanks

I have a question for you, does the power supply connector support "AMD power supplies"? I bought an Antec p303x a few yrs ago, and I wonder if it will work with this board... I know the Soltek P4x400 supports both types of power supplies.

 

[ToBeMe]

Nice thread!

I bought one each P4S8X and a SR7-8X to expieriement. I have to say the Asus board blows away the Abit as far as feature set! The Abit though has two qualities I haven't been able to get working with the Asus.......................I can run two sticks of DDR-400 on fast settings in the Abit board and be totally stable, and the Abit has PCI/AGP lock which really helps in O/C'ing. So far I have been able to take the Abit to 155FSB (where it is now) and be stable with the DDR-400. With the Asus and DDR-333 I have only been able to reach 142FSB and even then it would not run 3Dmark and was not stable so I backed it back down. It seems you can have one of two things...........................a feature rich board which is stable as hell with DDR-33 and very limited O/C'ing, or a featureless board which will run DDR-400 stable and has seemingly much better O/C'ing abilities......................

 

[dbett]

Originally posted by: vm
Nice, thanks

I have a question for you, does the power supply connector support "AMD power supplies"? I bought an Antec p303x a few yrs ago, and I wonder if it will work with this board... I know the Soltek P4x400 supports both types of power supplies.

The board has what Asus calls the "Ez Plug" power connection. It has 3 power connectors. One is the standard 20 pin ATX power connector. It then has the 12volt square 4 pin connector for use with the newer power supplies. Or if you don't have a power supply that has that square 12 volt plug, there is an alternate connector which accepts a normal 4pin device power plug to supply the extra power needed for the P4. So it's pretty flexible.


[Edit to add link - again]

Asus Ez plug information.

 

[LordSnailz]

got the same board this morning - thank you googlegear, will post results this weekend. Thanks for this thread!

 

[DannyLarry]

I've been waiting for these 648 boards to come out it seems forever... When the Asus finally came out I can't seem to get a clear idea of if it has RAID support. Newegg shows it as RAIDless, and the Asus site makes one reference to it as optional in one piece of text but I can find no other references to it. But I keep reading posts in different places talking about the RAID.

Does this mobo have RAID support?

 

[cbolton]

Nice thread dbett! I am ready to pull the trigger on a P4S8x myself but have been waiting for a bit more info from folks using the motherboard. Based on your trials - DDR400 doesn't look too good with this board.. I hope you can use ATA 133 without a RAID configuration. I was actually wanting to buy the Mobo with the Corsair DDR400 but now I am having second thoughts.

LordSnailz:

What is your configuration - DDR333 or DDR400. CPU, HD, etc? Interested to see how this works out.

DannyLarry:

Everything I have read on the net indicates RAID on the Asus P4S8X - check out this P4S8x review:

http://www.amd3d.com/CPU3D/review/p4s8x/

 

[cbolton]

Aaah - didn't see that Dbett already had the CPU 3D Review link in his post. My bad...

 

[Disappointed]

I picked up 2 SIS 648 based mobos a couple days ago, 1 Asus P4S-8X and 1 Abit SR7-8X. Neither one will come close to booting with the memory set at 400 (4-6-2-1), even with memory timings set to something ridiculous like 4-4-4. I am using 1 Corsair 512 mb PC3200 CAS 2 module with a 2.53 P4 in each . Thats were the similarity ends. The Asus board just blows away the POS Abit. I had such a poor time with the ABIT I even swithed the P4 and Memory between them to make sure it was not them. Neither board is well suited for a serious overclocker but the difference is amazing. First off the ABIT board had stability problems at a minimal overclock of 138mhz. The Asus ran smooth as a babies bottom at 150fsb and 187(374) mem, at get this CAS 1.5-2-2-2 1u. That's right the Asus board has a setting for CAS 1.5. My Sandra memory score was over 2800. Boy did that make me happy after not getting the 400 memory bus setting to work. I would recommend the Asus board to any one. It is fully loaded with features like 2 firewire ports , 6 2.0 USB ports, Serial ATA with RAID, 6 channel sound, every kind of cable, jumpers, etc. The Abit board was very stripped down with just basic features. I bought the Abit for at work where the processor is never overclockled. I figured I save a few bucks but I regret it. When I bought them from New Egg the Abit was $108. and the Asus was $146, just spend the extra $38.00 and you will never regret it.

 

[Disappointed]

Here is my 3DMark 2001SE score with Asus P4S-8X from yesterday with the FSB at 147 and a GF3 TI500, 10000+ on my first try.
http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=4462506

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: Disappointed
I picked up 2 SIS 648 based mobos a couple days ago, 1 Asus P4S-8X and 1 Abit SR7-8X. Neither one will come close to booting with the memory set at 400 (4-6-2-1), even with memory timings set to something ridiculous like 4-4-4. I am using 1 Corsair 512 mb PC3200 CAS 2 module with a 2.53 P4 in each . Thats were the similarity ends. The Asus board just blows away the POS Abit. I had such a poor time with the ABIT I even swithed the P4 and Memory between them to make sure it was not them. Neither board is well suited for a serious overclocker but the difference is amazing. First off the ABIT board had stability problems at a minimal overclock of 138mhz. The Asus ran smooth as a babies bottom at 150fsb and 187(374) mem, at get this CAS 1.5-2-2-2 1u. That's right the Asus board has a setting for CAS 1.5. My Sandra memory score was over 2800. Boy did that make me happy after not getting the 400 memory bus setting to work. I would recommend the Asus board to any one. It is fully loaded with features like 2 firewire ports , 6 2.0 USB ports, Serial ATA with RAID, 6 channel sound, every kind of cable, jumpers, etc. The Abit board was very stripped down with just basic features. I bought the Abit for at work where the processor is never overclockled. I figured I save a few bucks but I regret it. When I bought them from New Egg the Abit was $108. and the Asus was $146, just spend the extra $38.00 and you will never regret it.

That's extremely strange............Most people including most reviews found that the Sr7-8X was one of the only boards which would run DDR-400 reliably and stabley............my findings were similar. I though am using true (well as true as it can be without a JDEC standard) DDR-400 cas 2.5. As mentioned above, I can run it at fast settings and at cas2 and with PCI/AGP lock can acheive a much higher O/C than with the Asus board which is also what most reviews found since the P4S8X lacks the lock feature. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Asus for it's features and it is VERY stable with DDR-333 and not O/C'ed........I'll probably toy with both a while longer just to see what the max O/C's I can get are and then sell the Abit and stick with the Asus until the "648DX's" arrive which now looks to be late Oct./early Nov...............

 

[vm]

Does the Asus have a pci/agp lock?

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: vm
Does the Asus have a pci/agp lock?

No.....

 

[vm]

How much does the lack of a lock affect OCing? I've only OCed one CPU ever so my experience is limited :{

i assume it really affects it, since you add PCI and AGP to the "possible problems" ;/

oh well, I got a Soltek p4x400, it was 60.00 less than the Asus..

no lock there either, hopefully they'll add one in the next bios updates. why the hell don't they put it in the first place??

 

[Disappointed]

I don't know why I get such poor results with the Abit but I am not thrilled. I guess it could be luck off the draw and I could have gotten a marginal northbridge on the Abit. If the Abit is even set to FAST at 135mhz it crashes. I read outside the SIS 648 reference board not many people have had much luck with the 400mhz setting on any of the boards. I just don't get it, the 2 memory modules I used were both supposed to be rated and tested at 400 mhz CAS 2 so you would think at CAS 4-4-4 it would at least boot . Yet the same modules run at 374 cas 1.5 without any problems. The AGP/PCI lock with me is not all that important, all my other components, drives, etc were switched over from my old ones were they ran fine on a 150mhz fsb for almost a year.

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: vm
How much does the lack of a lock affect OCing? I've only OCed one CPU ever so my experience is limited :{

i assume it really affects it, since you add PCI and AGP to the "possible problems" ;/

oh well, I got a Soltek p4x400, it was 60.00 less than the Asus..

no lock there either, hopefully they'll add one in the next bios updates. why the hell don't they put it in the first place??

Actually, the SiS boards are not your "banner" O/C'ers to begin with, but, are very nice, feature rich, stable boards......especially the Asus P4S8X!

As for the lock, I imagine it does benefit the Abit thus the reviews and my personal findings of marginally better O/C'ing with it but, at the cost of so many features...

As far as I've read and been told, the "lock" feature can create several problems and cause instability too. I believe Asus originally intended to include the feature on the P4S8X and that was one of the delays because it was causing problems so it was taken from the board. The way it looks, Abit has been able to figure it out, but perhaps the lack of features is a tell tale sign of how they managed to accomplish this! I'm not sure whether the MSI or any other boards will include the feature, but, intend to find out and try them if they do! Also, I understand the MSI board will feature 10/100/1000onboard lan as a feature which is great if you have another similar board or a card which supports it I guess.....................

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: Disappointed
I don't know why I get such poor results with the Abit but I am not thrilled. I guess it could be luck off the draw and I could have gotten a marginal northbridge on the Abit. If the Abit is even set to FAST at 135mhz it crashes. I read outside the SIS 648 reference board not many people have had much luck with the 400mhz setting on any of the boards. I just don't get it, the 2 memory modules I used were both supposed to be rated and tested at 400 mhz CAS 2 so you would think at CAS 4-4-4 it would at least boot . Yet the same modules run at 374 cas 1.5 without any problems. The AGP/PCI lock with me is not all that important, all my other components, drives, etc were switched over from my old ones were they ran fine on a 150mhz fsb for almost a year.

Actually, the Abit faired better even than the reference boards in some reviews running "true DDR-400". In fact, I also have some Samsung DDR-400 cas 3 laying around............the Asus would not boot with it, but, the Abit ran fine with two sticks of it running at cas 2.5! Perhaps some of it is merely "luck of the draw" concerning ram and boards, but, from what I can tell overall from reviews and newsgroups and forums, the Abit is more likely to run DDR-400 right now and also O/C better because of the PCI/AGP lock.................

Still like the Asus better though..........the feature are just plain awesome and as stated above, I firmly believe the Abit's lack of features but addition of PCI/AGP lock tells a lot...................right now it seems you can have one or the other but not both! Let's see what MSI and others do.................

 

[dbett]

Anyone tried to hook up a single (non-RAIDed) hard drive to the Promise ATA-133 connection (instead of the primary or secondary IDE channels)? The manual is a little unclear on using it for something other than a RAID array. This is what it says:

The PRI_ATA133 connector [which is the Promise connector] supports only one hard drive for use in a RAID array. The PRI_ATA133 connector supports either RAID1/0 in combination with either of the Serial ATA connectors. RAIS 0 is supported for three HDDs connected to the serial ATA connectors and the PRI_ATA133.

Any thoughts? I'll eventually just try and see what happens, but some info. from people with experience (perhaps even just using add-in Promise controllers on other boards for non-RAID setups) would make me feel better. Thanks.

 

[cbolton]

Ok - I have been convinced to get one.... Googlegear has my order for a P4S8X and 2.53Ghz PIV now...

What's the optimal way to configure the drives in this mobo? Here is what I have:

1 80GB WD SE w/8MB cache (OS Drive)
1 120GB WD SE w/8MB cache (Data Drive for Apps, MP3's, etc)
1 Lite-On 48X CD-RW
1 Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM

I want to optimally configure these for optimal I/O - I was thinking:

80GB and 16XDVD on primary IDE

48X CD-RW and 120GB place?

I would really appreciate any insight on this - want to do this right from the start.

Craig

 

[HitmanXP]

Just got my board Thursday and i have to say it looks promising ...i havent been able to use it cause i dont have my other components done but id really like em to lock the agp and pci bus and we might see the true overclocking ability from it. Also does it support DDR400 and if so whos the best vender to buy from that would allow it to run ddr400

 

[Disappointed]

I could not get the 400 memory bus speed to work on either board with DDR 400. Had 2 different 512 mb sticks of Corsair XMS3200 (DDR 400)CAS 2 memory, so you might want to try something diff.. I have been scouring reviews to figure out why others have had luck and I have not. With the Abit the review I found (HardOCP) that listed a BIOS version showed they had version A8 and my board came with BA. In the notes for the BA BIOS file it lists improved performance as one of the fixes. It could have tightened the timings for the chipset to improve the official supported memory speeds (200,266,333) but make the timings that much harder for DDR400.

 

[Elvis2]

I to am having problems running my 512 stick of Corsair XMS 3200C2 @ 400mhz on my 2.53/P4S8X box. I was able to get the fsb to 145 before it wouldn't load XP Pro. I hope this issue (running at ddr400) is resolved in the next bios release. Other than that, it's been rock solid.

 

[ToBeMe]

From all reports it appears on the Abit board people are having best luck with Samsung True DDR-400 and most are able to run the overclocked DDR-333 XMS PC3200. I have had luck with both on my particular Abit board as well as some Mushkin I have. Now, as for the Asus board, it seems very few people are having any luck with DDR-400 although there appears to be a few whom are, again, most I've seen have been with Samsung ram. My bios too is the BA which comes on all shipped SR7-8x's. Your best bet if you simply want to attempt to run DDR-400 will be the Abit board although IMHO the gains are not signifigant enough at this point to warrant. If Asus can ever figure out any way to make PCI/AGP lock work with all the added features of that board, it would be the absolute best of 648's as far as I can tell but as for now at least, it seems you have to make a choice and go by the odds..............if you simply want a feature rich board which is rock stable running DDR-333 and do not care much about O/C'ing..............go with the Asus................if though, you like to be "cutting edge" as far as performance and want to try and use DDR-400 ram and do the most O/C'ing you can with a 648 board................odds say you'd have to choose the plain jane, no frills Abit board............it lacks all the amenities of the Asus board, but, has much better luck running a variety of DDR-400 both O/C'ed DDR-333 and the "semi-standard" "True DDR-400" which Samsung and a few others have come out with as well as PCI/AGP lock which will help in your O/C'ing adventures!

Personally though, the features the P4S8X offers are worth much more to most people plus the fact that we can always hope bios updates will come and help in the ram department and hell, they may eventually figure out PCI/AGP lock like I stated above and the P4S8X will blow all others away in every way!

Good Luck!

 

[dbett]

Well, in case anyone cares, I figured out how to get my only hard drive running using the Promise ATA-133 controller (after having it set up with WinXP on the Primary IDE connection). It's a bit of a pain.

Simply changing the plug from the Primary IDE connector to the ATA-133 connector, enabling the ATA controller in BIOS and setting up a single drive RAID array (using the automatic option in the Fastrack config program) didn't work. Windows XP wouldn't recognize that there was a hard drive, apparently because it didn't have the drivers for the Promise controller. I tried the Windows install disk to see if I could "repair" the drive, but no luck. Nor could I install the necessary Promise drivers from within the Windows setup program because (1) Windows wanted a floppy disk with the drivers which I didn't have and (2) even after copying the driver files from the Asus CD to a floppy, Windows wouldn't take it because it wanted a specific ".oem" file on the floppy.

So here's what I ended up having to do:


Switch the drive back to the Primary IDE connector, boot into Windows and then use the Add/Remove Hardware function to manually installl drivers for the Promise controller. The drivers are in the "Drivers/Promise" folder on the Asus CD. I wasn't sure exactly which of the 6 or so Promise drivers I needed, so to be on the safe side I ended up installing three different ones -- all of them except the ones with "150" in the name - since I figured those were the serial ATA controllers.

Power down and switch the cable to the ATA-133 connector.

Go into Bios and under Advanced: PCI Config select "enabled" for the ATA controller, and select "yes" to the option that then appears to use that controller first. Then under the Boot menu, chang the Other boot device to "SCSI/Onboard ATA."

Save and reboot.

Enter the Fastrack config utility (by hitting ctrl-f when prompted). Then just select the "Auto Setup" choice. With only one drive that will default to Stripe mode. Hit "ctrl-y" to save that set up. Then hit any key to reboot when prompted.

My machine then booted right into Win XP and all my data and partitions (C, D, and E drives) were intact.

So not hard once I figured out I needed to install the drivers first. But anyone who plans on using the ATA-133 connector (and probably the Serial ATA connector as well) is going to need to hook up the hard drive to the normal IDE connectors first, install Window (at least for XP), add the drivers manually and then switch the drive.

So after all that I was then able to add a 56x cd drive as the only device on the Primary IDE channel and have my CD-RW drive as master on the secondary, along with the DVD drive as slave. So I should get pretty good performance ripping from the 56x drive and burning right onto the CD-RW. At least I hope.

 

[Elvis2]

WTG man...good job